Female of the Species
by Bella The Strange
Summary: The TARDIS decides she has enough fuel for one more little trip before insisting on taking the Doctor and Martha to Cardiff for a pit-stop. That one little change will affect so much. Female!Doctor.
1. Minor Inconvenience

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing that's worth any money. Doctor Who is worth a lot of money, ergo I do not own it. Also, you'd be wasting your time trying to sue my penniless ass.

**Author's Note**: You know me, I take a typical plot concept and try to flesh it out into something more than typical. Fem!Doctor is old news, but this is my twist on it.

And just to clarify for future reference, when I refer to the Doctor with a male pronoun, I'm referring to him in the past tense. If I use the female pronoun it refers to anything that's happened since the 'accident'. It just makes more sense, that way. I just hate trying to read body-swap or gender-change situations where it refers to someone who was born male as 'he' even when they've been turned into a female, or vice-versa. I'm talking to you, Torchwood novel '_Almost Perfect_'.

x x x

**Chapter 1: Minor Inconvenience**

x x x

They had found themselves on a rather backwards little world. It had space travel all right, but it didn't seem to have heard of the concept of equality. Not a woman in sight, and the Doctor knew most of the species he saw on this world were not of the kind where it was difficult to tell the difference. Martha had lied outright, at the Doctor's very amused suggestion, and after several minutes of heated debate on the subject of inter-planetary slavery, and since humans had never been to this world in this time she had gotten away with claiming to be the male of her species.

But now they were both being threatened at gun-point. Nothing unusual there, not for the Doctor anyway. Although he was pretty sure that was not the usual sort of projectile gun he tended to see on Earth. Nor was it any of the more standard laser varieties he was used to being threatened by on other worlds. It wasn't even one of the rarer types of weapons he'd occasionally learned the functions of from watching either his enemies or his allies using them. He had never seen a weapon quite like it.

Then again, he had never actually met a member of this particular species before, either. He was being threatened by a rather tall, unnecessarily muscle-y alien, with horns. In fact, any Earthling from the twenty-first century could be forgiven for thinking he was related to Darth Maul. That had been Martha's first remark, when they were ambushed.

Except Darth Maul doesn't use gun-shaped weapons. Does he?

Either way, they were now facing off against this Darth Maul wannabe, and as usual the Doctor was foolish enough to be unarmed. Martha had also been foolish enough to listen to the Doctor when he'd said she didn't need to bring any form of weapon. She should have known better by now, really. Listening to the Doctor when he says a world is safe. How many times had he been wrong about that before, anyway? He'd lost count, actually.

The alien was a common criminal, who seemed to want only to steal their money and leave town. Unfortunately, they did not have anything of value. Nothing at all. How the Doctor managed to get by without ever having the correct currency on him, Martha would never know.

Martha backed down immediately, "I don't have much, all I've got is this." she showed him her watch, which had only cost her five pounds, anyway. It was shiny, though, and might actually be worth something on another world.

The alien snatched it off her wrist, and turned the gun to the Doctor, "Money." he demanded. He didn't seem able to speak the local language too well, and the TARDIS' translation of the word was grumbled and barely intelligible.

The Doctor shook his head, "I don't have any."

"What sort of idiots don't carry money?" the alien muttered in his own language.

"The sort that don't want to lose said money." the Doctor answered, causing the alien to start.

"You speak my language?" he asked, lowering his weapon very slightly, distracted.

"I speak a lot of languages." the Doctor retorted. True enough, he could speak over a hundred languages without the TARDIS' translation circuits to help him. This alien's language wasn't one of them, though. Not that he felt any inclination to share that detail.

The alien eyed him suspiciously, "You're not a bounty hunter, are you?"

"As if a bounty hunter would have let you point that at him in the first place." the Doctor said, almost amused.

"Might if they wanted to trick me." the alien grumbled, before raising his weapon again, "I can't take that risk." and he fired the weapon.

x x x

The Doctor woke up on the cold ground, right where the attack had happened, and slowly sat up, looking around the alleyway, which was otherwise deserted, except for Martha. "Please tell me that was not what I think it was." the Doctor asked, in a voice that was softer, distinctly different from before, definitely not a good sign. That weapon was looking more and more like something the Doctor had read about, regarding that particular species of alien.

If he had regenerated, he would still feel the burning from it. Unless he'd been unconscious for a long time, in which case the odds of him waking up elsewhere were almost a hundred percent. This had been virtually painless. Well, mostly.

"Doctor...?" Martha whispered, fearfully. Clearly confused as to the Doctor's identity, so he must have changed in some visible way.

The Doctor looked first at hands that were far too fine, even for him. Then, ran those hands over a face that felt quite distinctly different. Now, he'd dealt with new faces before, but was still certain this was not a regeneration. Double-checking to be sure revealed that there was no residual regeneration energy to be detected.

A strand of long brown hair fell in front of the Doctor's eyes, and this only seemed to add to the theory. Never had hair that long before, not even during that phase in his first life when he had deliberately grown it long to infuriate the Academy instructors. Now the final step to proving the rather disturbing theory. Look down.

Yes, the theory was proven true.

"Well this is different." the Doctor muttered, looking up at Martha.

Martha continued to stare in shock, "You're... you're...?" there was a question there, rather than any attempt at confirming what the Doctor had already figured out. Martha did not want to believe it. It shouldn't be possible, in her opinion. That much was clear. Then again, they were getting close to perfecting this sort of thing surgically, on Earth. Should she really be that surprised to see an alien device that does it instantaneously?

"I'm a woman." the Doctor said, nowhere near as distraught as one might expect. "Did you see where the Varisian went?"

"The what?"

"The alien who shot me." She was already going over the options for how to capture the alien in question, and recover the weapon undamaged. She now understood exactly what the weapon was. The females of that species were born weak, almost completely defenceless. It wasn't a prejudice, but rather an evolutionary mistake. But that weapon would completely cripple any Varisian it was used on. Kind of foolish for their attacker to assume the same of other species. Then again, if he was on this planet, he might never have met a female of another race to know that they were different from his own.

"That way, but... it's long gone. I tried to follow it. Him. Whatever." Martha stammered, still in shock.

Rather slowly- always best to be careful when trying out a new body for the first time, there's often balance and equilibrium issues when you're suddenly a foot shorter, or the like- the Doctor picked herself up. Yep, she _was_ about foot shorter. Good guess. Her feet didn't quite fit the shoes she was wearing anymore, and the brown coat dragged a bit on the ground. She quickly and efficiently bent over and rolled up the legs of her suit, before straightening up again and looking at Martha.

"We need to find him. I need that weapon, to undo this." she said, rather matter-of-factly.

"You... seem to be taking this well." Martha noted, edgily.

"I've changed my appearance before." the Doctor said, shrugging, "Never been female, though."

Martha laughed nervously, "Is there any way to track it?"

"I should be able to trace the energy signature of the weapon, when we get back to the TARDIS." she said, brushing the far-too-long hair back irritably.

"Here." Martha pulled a spare hair-tie out of a pocket, and handed it to the Doctor.

"Um... thanks." she said, before quickly tying back the hair that was just as unruly had it had been before, yet somehow much more annoying for its length.

Martha shook her head, "This is seriously weird."

The Doctor shook her head, "It's only a minor inconvenience." she said, as she started walking back to the TARDIS.

x x x


	2. Captain Jack

x x x

**Chapter 2: Captain Jack**

x x x

The Doctor could be found sitting in the main control room of the TARDIS, staring blankly at some point in thin air between herself and the console, a slight frown on her face.

Martha cautiously approached her, and sat down next to her on the couch, "Um, you ok, Doctor?" she asked warily.

"Yes." was the answer.

"What's taking so long? Where are we?"

"Cardiff."

"The alien didn't come to Earth, did he?"

"No. The TARDIS needed to recharge her energy cells. There's a rift here that accelerates the process." the Doctor answered, still staring at that point in thin air. If she hadn't spoken when questioned, Martha might have thought she hadn't even noticed that anyone was here.

"Like a pit-stop?"

"Exactly."

"We got that tracking thing worked out yet?" Martha asked.

"Not yet. We're going to have to do that from the Vortex. Will take a couple of hours, once we're ready to leave. The data's in the lab."

Martha frowned. She knew there were a lot of rooms in the TARDIS, but she had never seen this lab before. Hadn't heard mention of it before, either. Still, she wasn't one to argue. She had yet to find the wardrobe room, though clearly the Doctor had been there very recently. New body, new clothes. That's what she had said when she'd disappeared into the depths of the ship.

She now wore a perfectly tailored jacket, matching denim jeans (how she managed to make those match, Martha wondered with mild awe, but they did), and a light-coloured shirt that was mostly concealed by the fact that the jacket was buttoned at the front. Most likely permanently, given the Doctor's attitude to clothing. It never seemed to vary, in Martha's limited experience. He had always worn one of two suits, and that same brown coat. Always. Martha didn't think she was likely to change this new outfit at any point, until they found the weapon and undid its damage.

"You sure you're ok?" Martha persisted, "Only you've been staring at thin air since I came in here."

The Doctor turned to look at her, "I'm fine, really. I'm just feeling impatient, at the moment. It's been an hour since we got back to the TARDIS, but she refuses to move from here until she's fully charged, even though we could already be looking for the Varisian by now if she weren't so stubborn. Should have taken less than a minute for her to recharge, so far it's been five."

"And impatience involves sitting still on which planet?" Martha asked, grinning.

The Doctor half-laughed, "Mine, apparently." she said, once again successfully avoiding the question- however tactfully or innocently brought up- of where the Doctor actually came from. Just then a beeping noise attracted the attention of both of them, and they looked to the control console to see a flashing green light. "Finally." the Doctor said brightly, jumping up and rushing over to the controls.

Within seconds, and without even bothering to look at anything but the controls required to take off, they were moving.

But very erratically, even for the Doctor's usual driving abilities.

"What's happening?" Martha asked.

The Doctor scanned the readouts with growing horror, "Something's scared the TARDIS. She's out of control."

"What?"

"We're accelerating, forwards in time. Like..." she groped around for a good analogy, then turned to face Martha, "Like a horse trying to buck something off its back."

"Not good." Martha guessed.

"Very not good." the Doctor confirmed, "Hold on!"

And the ride became even bumpier.

When they finally stopped moving, both of them had been thrown around the control room in every direction. Martha had managed to grab onto the railings at one point, and held on for dear life. The Doctor had conveniently landed on the couch as they stopped moving, and should be considering herself very lucky that she had decided not to wear a skirt.

Groaning and rubbing the back of her neck as if she'd been hurt, the Doctor picked herself up, glancing at Martha questioningly.

"I'm fine." Martha said, pulling herself up by the railing. "You?"

"Bruised ego, nothing to worry about." she muttered. Martha laughed. The Doctor checked the readouts on the main console. "Well that can't be right." she declared, staring at the screen.

Martha knew better than to try to read over the Doctor's shoulder, having learned early on that the readouts were always written in some kind of alien language that the TARDIS didn't deign to translate for her. Instead she simply asked, "What can't be right."

"According to this, we're in the year one hundred trillion." she answered, blinking as if trying to figure out how that could have happened. Martha looked at her blankly, so the Doctor elaborated, "The end of the universe. Well, about a century or so left, but most of the stars have already burnt out."

Martha's jaw dropped, "Wow."

"No one's ever come this far into the future. Not on purpose, anyway. I imagine there's people out there, right now, came the long way, probably didn't really want to be here now, but no choice." She was rambling. No change there, then.

"We should probably go back to the Vortex." Martha suggested, "You want to search for that alien thing."

"Varisian." the Doctor corrected automatically, "Maybe later. Don't you want to see what's out there?" she asked, suddenly sounding excited at the prospect of exploring somewhere- or more accurately somewhen- completely new.

"I suppose..." Martha said warily. When the Doctor gets excited about exploring something, it usually ends up dangerous.

"Won't take that long." the Doctor said innocently, "Just a quick look." And Martha found herself unable to think of any valid reason why not. Besides precedent, but that had never discouraged the Doctor before.

x x x

Captain Jack Harkness was dead. Again. It never lasted, though. And finally, he found himself aware, breathing, all that fun stuff that he never realises is missing until it hurts again. Yep, pain too. Wonderful.

He sat up slowly, looking around. The TARDIS was looming over him, giving off an almost indignant air, if he didn't know better. And standing nearby were two very attractive women. The dark-skinned girl with the very pretty eyes was staring at him with shock and fear, hands over her mouth, as if- yes, he'd bet anything she'd just checked and declared him dead.

The other one was giving him that sort of glare he only ever got from people who knew about his curse and were disgusted by it. She was a very pretty brunette, very slightly taller, and at first glance you'd think she was only a few years older than the other girl, but her eyes looked a lot older than her face. He recognised that, saw it in the mirror often enough.

Jack slowly picked himself up, eyeing the two cautiously, "Hello ladies." he said, in his most charming tone.

"You were dead!" the younger one said. Almost squeaked, really.

Jack decided on evasiveness until he knew what was going on and who these two were, "Do I look dead?" he asked innocently.

"Not anymore." the brunette said coldly. Yes, she probably knew. He wished he knew who she was, though. That's a big problem with time-travel, sometimes people know you- often very well- when you haven't even met them yet.

Jack glanced at the TARDIS. Now, if he didn't know better he'd think it was laughing at him. Something was off here. He looked back to the two ladies, and asked, "I don't suppose either of you would know the Doctor?"

"I know the Doctor." the younger one said, nodding with a nervous smile. There was something she clearly thought funny, which Jack did not get.

The brunette continued to glare, but only managed to hold it for a few more seconds before failing to contain her own laughter, "I _am_ the Doctor." she said.

Jack couldn't help himself. His eyes ran up and down the brunette. Twice. _Very_ hot body. "No way." he whispered. "Didn't know you could turn into a woman."

"I can't." she answered, "Not on my own, anyway. There was an... accident."

"He got shot by some alien tech." the younger one- new companion, then?- said, "We _were_ trying to track it down, but you had to go and scare the TARDIS."

Jack opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, before finally deciding on the right way to word what he was thinking, "You know, Doc, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, really-"

"Stop right there, Captain." the Doctor said coldly, holding up her hand in a gesture to emphasise her words. "Besides, it's ten lifetimes, so far." she added dismissively.

"But-" Jack started again.

"No." the Doctor said firmly, "Not in a million years."

"I can wait that long." Jack retorted, smirking slightly.

The Doctor shook her head, and turned and started walking away from him. Which was not unpleasant to look at. Her companion followed, rather amused, "You know him, I take it?" she asked the Doctor.

"Yes. Oh!" the Doctor suddenly spun around, "Martha, this is Captain Jack Harkness. Jack, this is Martha Jones." she held up her hand when Jack opened his mouth to speak, "Don't." she said pointedly.

Martha covered her mouth to stifle laughter. Clearly she found it much more amusing than the Doctor did. "I don't mind." she said brightly.

And suddenly the two humans found themselves having to run to catch up with the Doctor, who was already some distance ahead of them, and still walking.

"So where are we, then?" Jack asked Martha, in the most amicable tone he could manage that wasn't outright flirting. It was difficult not to flirt at all, though. He was actually trying, right now, but Martha still gave him an amusedly suspicious look that showed she could take a good guess at what he was thinking.

"The end of the universe." she answered brightly.

Jack grinned at that thought, "Cool."

x x x

The Doctor glanced over her shoulder to see Jack talking to Martha, while she walked on ahead. He wasn't exactly bothering to keep his voice down, which, considering the fact that he was talking about the Doctor as if she wasn't even there was rather rude.

"So there I was, stranded in the year two-hundred-one-hundred, ankle-deep in Dalek-dust, and he goes off without me. But I had this. I used to be a Time Agent. It's called a Vortex manipulator, he's not the only one who can time travel."

"Oh excuse me, that is not time travel." the Doctor said, indignantly, turning to face them, now walking backwards, "It's like I've got a sports car, you've got a space hopper." she added for good measure, before turning around to watch where she was going again.

Martha laughed, "Oh ho! That's rich, how many times has your TARDIS needed repairing, hmm?" she asked, grinning.

"Alright, maybe not a particularly _new_ sports car, but still better than that children's toy you call a Vortex manipulator." the Doctor retorted over her shoulder. She didn't feel the need to be quite so vehement as she might have done otherwise. Probably the fact she wasn't a man, right now. Besides, the TARDIS actually was an older model, this much was true. She didn't intend to elaborate on that right now, though. That would involve talking to Martha about her homeworld, and that was just not going to happen.

Jack snorted, but decided not to retort, instead he continued his tirade, "I thought the twenty-first century was the best place to find the Doctor. Except I got it a little wrong."

"Easy to do with the space-hopper." the Doctor joked.

Jack glared, she could feel the glare on the back of her head without turning around to see it. "And how many times have you landed on the wrong date, hmm?"

She shrugged innocently, and didn't answer. If he could see her face he would have been able to tell she was trying not to laugh.

"I arrived in eighteen sixty-nine." Jack said pointedly, as if demanding not to be interrupted again. See how long that lasts. "This thing's burnt out so it was useless."

"Told you." the Doctor said brightly.

"I had to live through the entire twentieth century, waiting for a version of you that would coincide with me." Jack said, finally speaking directly to the Doctor. She blinked, but didn't turn to face him. This meant he'd been stalking her previous incarnations, without any of them noticing. Interesting. She made a mental note to ask him more about that, later.

"But that makes you more than a hundred years old." Martha pointed out.

"And looking good, don't you think?" Jack replied immediately. Difficult to tell if he was trying to be funny or serious. He did laugh, though. Probably expected them to take it as a half-joke, what with the fact Jack actually did look good, but he didn't mean it as genuinely egotistical. "So I went to the time rift. Based myself there, cause I knew you'd come back to refuel. Until finally I get a signal on this detecting you, and here we are."

Finally, that rant was over.

"But the thing is, how come you left him behind, Doctor?" Martha asked. Or maybe not over yet.

She glanced over her shoulder at them again, but didn't answer. Anything she could possibly say here would be hurtful, either to Jack or to herself.

"I'd like to know that myself." Jack noted, as if he had been just waiting for the question to be brought up by Martha, instead of demanding the information himself.

The Doctor shook her head, and kept walking.

"Is that what happens, though, seriously? You just get bored with us one day and disappear?" Martha insisted.

"Not if you're blonde." Jack muttered.

"Oh, she was blonde?" Martha said, as if this was the answer to everything, "What a surprise!"

The Doctor stopped dead in her tracks, "You really thing the color of chemical a human puts in their hair has any bearing on the opinions of a person who can change their entire appearance?" she asked, it wasn't said loudly, but both heard it clearly.

Martha froze, stunned, and Jack glanced from one to the other, a little uneasy now.

The Doctor turned to face the two of them, her expression perfectly serious, "I was blond once. Honestly, I didn't really like it. Rather be ginger." She rolled her eyes, exasperated by the dumbstruck looks on her two friends' faces. "We are at the end of the universe, at the very edge of knowledge itself, and you two are still thinking in the twenty-first century!" she pointed at Jack, "And that's especially bad, coming from you." then she turned and resumed her trek across the barren landscape, "Come on."

x x x

Eventually, they came to the edge of a cliff, overlooking ancient ruins. "Is that a city?" Martha asked, stunned.

"Something of the sort." the Doctor answered vaguely, "It looks dead now. Long dead." it was difficult to tell if she was fascinated or sad. Maybe both?

"What killed it?" Martha asked, staring down at the ruins.

"Time." the Doctor said simply, "It'll get all of us in the end." she added, "Everything's dying now. All the great civilisations are gone. This isn't just night. The stars have burned up and faded away."

"They must have an atmospheric shell. We should be frozen to death." Jack noted.

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" the Doctor asked, half-smiling and looking right at him. As if she wasn't sure if she should be laughing at him or not. There was a coldness in her eyes, almost defensive.

"What about the people, does no one survive?" Martha asked, not having looked up from the ruins.

"Humanity's good at finding ways to keep going." she said, shrugging, "That's why I like you dumb apes so much." it was said with affection, in spite of the derogatory term she used.

Martha laughed weakly, and Jack looked away from them, to stare across the ruins. It was so sad, here. A graveyard, really. And yet, the Doctor was right. There was always hope.

Jack pointed across the other two, down into the valley, where a man was running as if for his life. "Well he's not doing too bad."

Then several more beings ran out after the man. And yes, he really was running for his life. It never seemed to take long for trouble to find the Doctor. Jack was fairly certain that the Doctor was in some way cursed. Even the most normal and peaceful journeys with the Time Lord ended up becoming dangerous.

"Is it just me, or does that look like a hunt?" the Doctor asked, before turning and running down the slope towards the valley. "Come on!" she shouted to the other two.

"I missed this." Jack said, laughing as he followed her. He idly wondered how the Doctor managed to run just as fast now, with significantly shorter legs, as he had before whatever had turned him into a woman. Jack never could catch up, always a few steps behind. Always. As if she was capable of running even faster, but chose to keep a pace that allowed her companions to follow her. Even if Martha was beginning to fall a bit behind.

They met the man in the middle of the valley, and Jack immediately caught him, "We've got you." he said quickly, drawing a gun and putting himself between the man and his attackers. They looked almost human, but somehow feral. And when they came closer, he saw their teeth. Like rows of fangs, and they really liked to show those sharp teeth off, too, snarling like a pack of dogs.

He pointed the gun at the leader of the pack, and was just about to shoot him when the Doctor shouted, "Jack, don't you dare!"

He rolled his eyes, and fired up into the air instead. A warning shot. But whatever the Doctor said, if these animals tried to attack either of the women, or the man they'd just tried to save, he was going to shoot to kill.

Luckily for the Doctor's delicate morals, the warning shot worked, and the feral creatures kept their distance, looking wary. Either the noise scared them or they'd seen guns before. Maybe both, even.

"What the hell are they?" Martha yelled, horrified. She had clearly just got a good look at these animals' teeth.

"There's more of them!" the man they were trying to rescue shouted, "We've got to keep going!"

"I've got a ship." the Doctor said quickly, "It's just over that ridge, it's safe, we can-" when she hesitated, Jack looked back at her, and saw she was staring at another group of these things swarming over the ridge towards them. "Or maybe not." she muttered, frowning.

"We're close to the silo!" the man said, barely avoiding panicking, by the sound of his voice, "If we get to the silo then we're safe!"

The Doctor glanced at Jack and Martha, "Silo?"

Jack nodded immediately, "Silo." like she even needed to ask!

"Silo for me!" Martha agreed.

The man they had rescued took off, beckoning for them to follow, and the three of them ran after him. Their attackers didn't seem too eager to give up, and appeared to think greater numbers might make them immune to bullets, as they no longer showed fear.

It really wasn't far to run. Very quickly, they came to a guarded gate.

"It's the Futurekind!" the man shouted to the guards, "They're coming! Let us in!"

The guards prepared to unlock the gate, but at the same time one of them ordered, "Show me your teeth!" and repeated the order, until all four of them had obeyed. By this time it was almost too late, but not quite. They ducked through the gate, and the guards fired at the feet of the 'Futurekind'.

The leader of the pack stepped forward, "Humans!" he snarled, "Human meat. Make feast."

Cannibals. Lovely. Absolutely delightful. Should kill the whole lot like the rabid dogs they're impersonating. But that was just Jack's opinion- a slightly biased opinion based on his own past experience with cannibals- and he was not in charge here, so he couldn't make that call anyway.

"Go back to where you came from." the leader of the guards ordered them. They did seem to understand, but they didn't look like they wanted to obey. "I said go back! Back!" the guard shouted, aiming for a head-shot on the leader of the pack.

Jack rolled his eyes, "Oh, don't tell him to put his gun down." he muttered sulkily.

"He's just doing his job." the Doctor retorted. Jack glared at her for a second, then returned his attention to the cannibals at the gate. They reluctantly backed down, and left the immediate vicinity.

The gate was locked again, and everyone seemed to relax. "Thanks for that." the Doctor said to the lead guard.

"Right, let's get you inside." the guard said to all of them, ushering them towards the silo in the centre of the compound.

The man they had rescued introduced himself to the guard, and asked, "Tell me, can you take me to Utopia?"

"Oh, yes sir. Yes I can." the guard answered, leading the way into the silo. Once inside, the guard turned to the other three, "And you three are?"

"I'm the Doctor." she said quickly, before Jack could have a chance to introduce himself, "This is Captain Jack Harkness, and Martha Jones." she continued. More to spite the Doctor's attempts to thwart him than anything else, Jack smiled and winked at the guard as his name was mentioned.

"Doctor? Doctor of what, exactly?" the guard asked.

"Oh, everything." she answered dismissively.

"Excuse me a moment." the guard said, before heading over to a terminal of some sort. "Professor." he said into what was now obviously a communications device, "We've got four new humans inside. One of them is calling herself a Doctor." there was a brief pause, clearly a response they couldn't hear, then the guard said, "She says of everything." A few more seconds, and the guard disconnected the communicator and turned to the Doctor. He was smiling as if the Professor had said something incredibly funny before the communication ended, "He's dying to meet you."

x x x


	3. Professor Yana

x x x

**Chapter 3: Professor Yana**

x x x

Arrangements had been made for the expedition, who were going out to collect water, to search for the TARDIS and bring it to the silo if possible. Jack had flirted with about seven different people in as many minutes, and the three time travellers were now walking through a very crowded corridor filled with more people than any corridor should safely hold. Really, it was a fire hazard waiting to happen.

A child, no older than six or seven if she had to take a guess, was trying to reunite the man they had rescued with his family, calling out the names of those he was looking for. It was kind of sad, when you think about it. But this concept of Utopia was interesting. The Doctor didn't really believe in it, how could a perfect world still exist in this time? But she was not about to mention this thought and shatter the hope these people were living by.

"It's like a refugee camp." Martha noted. It did kind of give off that sort of atmosphere, yes.

"It's stinking!" Jack added. Then he noticed several people staring at him and immediately corrected himself, "Oh, sorry. No offence. Not you." to the nearest human to have heard him.

She did agree with him, it certainly gave off that sort of atmosphere as well, but, "Jack, don't be rude."

"Look who's talking, you're usually the rude one, Doctor." Martha put in unhelpfully.

"Therefore Jack should know how bad he's being." she countered.

"Yes, I'm a very bad boy who needs to be punished." Jack joked, catching up with the two of them. Martha laughed nervously at this suggestion.

The Doctor also laughed, "Maybe later, Captain." but it was clearly a joke, and he seemed to recognise that because he did not press the point, "But it is brilliant, isn't it? All these millions of years, and humanity has still survived. End of the universe and here you are." but then she hesitated.

Was it her imagination, or did she think a bit more before she spoke, as a female? There are some phrases you just don't say if you want to avoid tempting fate. She decided here was one of those moments where she should finish talking one sentence early. So for the first time in her life, she listened to that thought.

Just then, someone answered the child's call, recognising their name. The family reunion, in the midst of all this darkness was truly a beautiful moment. She smiled and stood back to watch, as Martha so accurately remarked, "It's not all bad news, is it?"

Meanwhile. "Hello, I'm Captain Jack Harkness."

"Jack!" she snapped, turning to look at him. He was flirting with another one of the refugees. Of course, no one else seemed to mind, but she really didn't need to listen to it right now. More important things to think about. "Stop it."

"You do know what the word 'hello' means, right?" Jack asked coldly, stalking over to the Doctor.

"When said by you, Captain, it means 'do you want to sleep with me?'" she retorted.

"Not always!" he protested.

"Give me one example." she demanded, folding her arms and smirking at this argument. She enjoyed arguing for the sake of it, especially when she knew she was right.

"Um... well..." and he seemed to be trying to think. "There's got to have been someone... I just can't think of any specific example, right now."

"I win." the Doctor said brightly, and Jack shook his head, deciding not to bother arguing.

Just then, a man approached. An older man, white hair, rather distractible looking, in spite of the fact he was clearly aiming for their little group.

He looked at the three of them carefully, only giving Jack one glance, but his gaze shifting between the Doctor and Martha for several seconds, before he asked, "The Doctor?" unfortunately, he was looking at Martha.

"That's me." the Doctor said brightly.

"Ah! Good!" the man cheered, grabbing her arm and leading her away rather quickly. Not running, but certainly not wasting any time either. The other two followed, confused. She was fighting the urge to laugh as the man repeated the word 'good' until even she couldn't be bothered to keep count of exactly how many times he'd said it.

"It's good, apparently!" she said brightly, glancing over her shoulder at the other two.

x x x

He only let go of the Doctor's arm when they entered what was clearly a laboratory, or maybe a control room of some kind. Sure, she didn't recognise most of the technology in the room, but that was to be expected. Even Time Lords didn't come this far into the future, and humans were always coming up with new and interesting ways to abuse science. She was actually very excited at the prospect of learning what all this stuff (junk!) did.

A pretty insectoid alien woman greeted them as they entered the laboratory, which the Doctor had no doubt would attract Jack's full attention within the minute. But she didn't have time to think about that, because the man who had dragged her down to this room began pointing to pieces of technology and identifying them.

"Now, this is the gravitissimal accelerator. It's past its best, but it still works. And over here is the Footprint Impeller System-" the emphasis in his tone actually implied the capital letters! "-now, do you know anything about end-time gravity mechanics?"

She frowned at that. Basic temporal mechanics never changed, although there were apocalypse theories that suggested alterations to gravitational fields during the collapse of large celestial systems. She could probably talk about the theory for days and not get a word of it right, because it was all purely hypothetical from her perspective. "Ah, little bit, yeah." she said, by way of an answer.

"Well, look at this, here." he said, indicating a screen which was displaying information on gravitational fields, in relation to this Footprint thing he'd pointed out earlier. It made very little sense to her, but it must have something to do with his last statement. She hoped. "But we can't get it to harmonise." he explained, as if this would help make things clearer. It did not. Only thing she understood about it was it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. No idea what it actually _was_ supposed to do, but she was sure he'd explain if she acted clueless enough. Not difficult, since, for the first time in a very long time, she really was clueless about something.

Of course, Jack had to interrupt before she could answer this man. He could have been more subtle about it, but then he wouldn't be Jack, would he? "Captain Jack Harkness." he was introducing himself to the insectoid girl.

"Oh, stop it already." the Doctor muttered.

"Can't I say hello to anyone?" Jack protested.

"Chan I do not protest tho." interesting speech-pattern the insectoid girl had. If she wasn't so distracted by this new technology, she might have asked about it.

"Maybe later, Blue." Jack said with a wink.

The Doctor rolled her eyes, and decided to ignore Jack. Not an easy task, but she would at least try. She returned her attention to the other man. He must be this Professor that she had heard the guard talking to. She'd figured that out a while ago, but didn't want to make assumptions until he bothered to introduce himself. If he remembered to do so, that is.

"And all this is to launch a rocket?" she asked the Professor, who had continued to talk about footprints and rockets while she'd admonished Jack. She hadn't caught every word, but those two really were enough to get the point.

"Yes." he answered, "Except without a stable footprint, we'll never achieve escape velocity. If only we could harmonise the five impact patterns and unify them, well, we might yet make it. Well, what do you think, Doctor? Any ideas?"

She frowned, looking around at the new technology, desperately wishing for a few years to disassemble it and learn how it actually worked before trying to figure out how to fix it, "Um, no... not a clue. Sorry."

"Nothing?" the Professor asked, startled.

"I'm not from around these parts. I've never seen a system like this before." she said, frowning and repeating, "Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry, it's my fault. There's been so little help-" the Professor began. It seemed he'd just assumed someone intelligent would get it all in a heartbeat. Maybe he was about to explain how this whole setup worked, which would certainly make it easier to help him.

But Martha picked that moment to exclaim, horrified, "Oh. My. God!" She had pulled a large- and heavy-looking- jar out of Jack's backpack. In the jar was a hand. "You've got a hand! A hand in a jar!" she continued, still shocked, as the Doctor and Professor approached. The Professor was clearly confused, but the Doctor stared at the hand with dawning comprehension. "A hand. In jar. In your bag?"

"That's my hand!" the Doctor said. Where the did Jack get that from? And did she even want to know why he kept it around?

Jack nodded, as if this was perfectly normal, "I said I had a Doctor-detector." he said, as if that explained it. It sort of did, actually.

"Chan is this a tradition amongst your people tho?" the alien girl asked.

"Not on my street! Martha declared, still horrified, "What do you mean, that's your hand? You've got both your hands! I can see them!"

"Long story." the Doctor said, shrugging, "I lost my hand. Christmas day. In a swordfight."

"What, and you grew another hand?" Martha asked. She was joking. She didn't believe it. After all that she'd seen, and she still had trouble believing these things.

"Yes. Yes, I did." the Doctor answered, smiling at the shocked expression on Martha's face.

"Might I ask, what species are you?" the Professor asked.

"Time Lord." she answered simply, "The last one." at their blank stares, she frowned and asked, "Heard of them?" the blank stares from the Professor and the alien girl persisted, "At all? Nothing? Really? Huh." she shrugged. So much for the Time Lords being infinite, even the memory of them was lost in this time.

"Chan it is said that I am the last of my species too tho."

"Sorry, what was your name?" the Doctor asked her.

"My assistant." the Professor answered, "And good friend, Chantho. A survivor of the Malmooth. This was their planet, Malcassairo... before we took refuge."

"That city outside, it was yours?" the Doctor asked.

"Chan the Conglomeration died tho."

The Doctor frowned. She knew exactly what it felt like to lose everything that defined what you were, "I'm sorry." she said softly.

"Chan most grateful tho."

"You grew another hand." Martha said.

_Oh, get over it, already!_ _You grow new blood cells, hair and skin, every day. And that's disgusting, by the way, finding bits of shed hair on the furniture all the time. You'd think we owned a spectacularly long-haired cat!_

The Doctor waved her hand- the one that had regrown- at Martha, and smiled at the human's continuing confusion, "It's really not that unusual for my species to be able to heal like that. Under the right circumstances. Right timing. Ok, so the odds of it happening are low, but I'm not the first of my kind to have done it. One person I knew managed to regrow both legs under similar circumstances. Of course, the original damage was his own fault, at least I can blame the Sycorax, but still."

Martha laughed, "All this time and you're still full of surprises."

'And you're surprised by the fact I can still surprise you?' the Doctor thought, but decided not to say it.

"Chan you are most unusual tho."

The Doctor shrugged, trying to act innocent. After a second, Jack spoke, "So what about those things outside? The beastie boys, what are they?"

"We call them the Futurekind." the Professor answered, "Which is a myth, in itself, but it's feared they are what we will become, unless we reach Utopia." A myth about a myth. Brilliant.

"And Utopia is...?" the Doctor prompted.

"Every human knows of Utopia. Where have you been?" the Professor asked, almost laughing.

"Um, remember the hand conversation there? Not human." she answered.

The Professor didn't say anything, just beckoned for them to follow as he went to a computer terminal. The Doctor followed, and she knew the other two weren't far behind her. When she looked at the screen, she saw that it showed a region of space, with one blinking red light on it. "The call came from across the stars." the Professor said, his voice distant, as if he was telling a wonderful fairy-story, "Over and over again. '_Come to Utopia_'. Originating from that point."

"Where is that?" she asked.

"Oh, it's far beyond the Condensate Wilderness." he answered. "Out towards the Wildlands and the Dark Matter Reefs." Those names meant nothing to her. Then again, places get renamed all the time, it was only to be expected. "Calling us in, the last of the humans scattered across the night."

"What do you think is out there?" she asked.

"We can't know." he answered, "A colony, a city, some sort of haven? The Science Foundation created the Utopia Project, thousands of years ago, to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself. Now perhaps they found it. Perhaps not. But it's worth a look, don't you think?"

"Oh yes." she said brightly. That excitement she always felt at the idea of exploring something new was back in full force. "And the signal keeps modulating, so we know it's not on automatic. That's a good sign. Someone's out there." she started working on the controls for the console, bringing up more information, "And that's... oh, that's a navigation matrix. So you can fly with out the stars to guide you, right Professor?" She looked up at him when he didn't answer. He looked like he was in pain. She frowned, and reached out to touch his shoulder, "Professor?" she repeated, more clearly.

At her touch, he seemed to snap out of whatever it was, startled. Normal physical pain didn't do that. You only snap out of that sort of reaction if the pain is in your head. "Right, that's enough talk." he said, trying to divert the attention away from his momentary lapse, "There's work to do!" he gestured towards Jack and Martha, who were blocking his way as he tried to move around the laboratory, "Now if you could leave, thank you."

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, watching him carefully.

"Yes I'm fine." he answered far too quickly, "And busy." he added. And also not a very good liar, apparently. He seemed unlikely to respond to further questioning of his health, so she decided to try a different tactic.

"Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it?" she asked. "This footprint thing... it's not working."

"We'll find a way!" the Professor snapped, irritably. Temper... whatever was wrong with him, she doubted it was in any way going to pretend to be helpful. Especially if he kept yelling at her.

"You're stuck on this planet, and you haven't told them, have you?" she persisted, "All those people out there, they still think they're going to Utopia."

"Well it's better to let them live in hope." the Professor said sadly, finally losing the anger he had displayed. Good. No place for anger in science.

"Quite right, too." she said, suddenly allowing her tone to turn bright and cheerful. Hope is always a good thing. And now he had calmed down, she decided it was time for her to be helpful. "And I must say, Professor... um, what was it?"

"Yana." he answered.

"Professor Yana." she said, nodding, "This new science is well beyond me. But all the same, a boost reversal circuit, whatever way you look at it, must be a circuit which reverses the boost." Even the dumbest ape should be able to figure that out... wait, no, she was pretty sure that certain humans really would not be able to make that leap of logic. She picked up an object that seemed familiar enough. He hadn't named it, but it was quite clearly a boost reversal circuit. Some things just never change. "So I wonder what would happen-" she turned a dial on the circuit, "-if I did this." and zapped it with her sonic screwdriver. Setting sixty-three, remodulating wavelength patterns. Then she turned the dial back, and a lot of light and noise started up around the lab. Not always a good sign, but in this case...

"Chan it's working tho!"

Yana stood up, staring around at the alarms that indicated the rocket's launch system had just powered up like it was supposed to. "But how did you do that?" he asked in amazement.

The Doctor shrugged, "Did I forget to mention, I'm brilliant?" she asked smiling. She'd already pocketed the sonic screwdriver, and Yana really hadn't got a good look at it. _Never give a rational explaination for your own abilities when cryptic suggestions make you look so much cooler_. Prydonian unoffical rule number two, right after _For every rule there is a loophole_.

Yana laughed, though the tone showed he really believed her, "We have work to do, now." he noted.

The next half hour was a blur. The machines were working now, but they needed to be configured, and final preparations made for the launch. The passengers were told to board the rocket. The Doctor, Martha, Jack and Chantho all helped the Professor set up the system.

If she looked back on it, she would not have been able to tell you everything that they had done, most of it involved following Yana's instructions, rather than figuring it out as they went along. The Doctor strongly preferred figuring things out as they went along, but time was of the essence, now. They had limited power, and needed to launch as soon as possible.

Finally, they finished programming the launch sequence, and the rest of the work was to be done mostly below the rocket. There were other people on that task, already. She could breathe again, metaphorically speaking seeing as she actually had been breathing the whole time they had been working, but still, the phrase fitted her feelings on the matter.

The Doctor collapsed into a nearby chair, not exactly exhausted, but getting close to it. Martha and Chantho had left to check that all the passengers got on board safely. Jack was lurking in a corner, almost as tired as the Doctor, but trying not to show it. Yana was smugly not tired at all, having remained in one place during the entire operation, monitoring the main console and giving everyone else orders. Well, actually, he wasn't smug about it, but she liked to imagine that he was because she was so tired. She had done most of the running around, after all. Sure, she was good at running, but half an hour without a break was a bit much even for her.

Jack was looking at the metal control-cards for the main system, "Are these punch cards?" he asked, suddenly.

"Yes." Yana answered.

"No circuits in them?" Jack insisted, clearly confused by this idea.

"Well, I had very limited resources." Yana muttered.

The Doctor smiled, and stood up, snatching the card in question from Jack and looking at it. She was capable of reading circuit-boards without a computer, and punch cards were even easier. After a brief glance, which determined it was one of the final launch-commands, she set it down with the other unused control cards, and approached Yana himself. He was working on the footprint system, and she decided to help.

"So you made all of this?" she asked. Now she had the time to look at this system, she wondered how such a complex setup could be made if the designer didn't even have basic circuitry to work with.

"Indeed I did." Yana answered.

She stared intently at what had looked at a distance like wiring. Then sniffed it. It smelled edible. She was tempted to lick it to find out. Might actually have done so if Jack hadn't been in the room to make rude remarks about it. "Is that...?"

"Gluten extract." Yana answered, "It binds the neutralino map together."

So she was right, edible. Edible circuitry! Brilliant! "But that's food." she muttered, "You built this system out of food and string and staples? Professor Yana, you're a genius!"

"Says the woman who made it work." Yana retorted.

"No." she said, shaking her head, "Always easy to show up last minute and fix one little overlooked detail." This certainly wasn't the first time the Doctor had done that, "No, you... you built it all. You're amazing. This really is magnificent. I don't think even I could have done all this. And, well, that's saying something."

Yana snorted, the self-depreciating sort of noise that showed he really didn't believe he was as great as she said, "Even my title is an affectation. There hasn't been such a thing as a university for over a thousand years."

"Join the club." she muttered under her breath.

She wasn't sure he heard, because he continued to speak as if he hadn't. "I spent my life going from one refugee ship to another."

"If you'd been born in a different time you'd be revered." When he laughed at the idea, she added, "I mean it. Through all the known galaxies."

"Oh, those damn galaxies. They had to go and collapse!" Yana said sardonically, "Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little. Just once."

"Well I admire you." she said with a smile. But that smile didn't last long, because what she said next didn't deserve it. "But that footprint-engine thing... you can't activate it from on board, can you? It'll need to be done from here. You're planning to stay behind."

He nodded, "With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses."

"You'd give your life so they could fly." she said distantly. After what he had said about wanting to find out if the idea of Utopia was true, but he would never know.

"Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia." Yana said, dismissively. He'd clearly given this a lot of thought, it showed in his voice. "Time I had some sleep." Oh, very Star Wars. Not that she would ever voice that thought.

Just at that moment, a voice came through over the silo's radio system, "Professor, tell the Doctor we've found her blue box."

She grinned broadly as she heard that, but before she could say anything, Jack called over to her, "Doctor." and he pointed to the screen, which showed the TARDIS.

"Professor." she said brightly, "I think we might have a way to get you out of here, after the rocket launches."

x x x

It didn't take long for the TARDIS to be brought up to the lab, where she immediately ran inside and began working. Jack followed her, much more calmly, and closed the door behind him. She heard the door close, and poked her head out of the hole in the floor grating she had already created to access the inner workings of the ship. As soon as she saw who it was, she went back to work. If he wanted to say something, she was listening, but this was important.

"What was that?" Jack demanded, his tone sounding as if he was trying not to laugh.

"No idea what you're talking about, Jack." she said flatly, still working on the wiring, and trying to remember some of the old Academy lessons on TARDIS design. She so rarely needed to access this part of the ship that she actually had to pause to think about which wires she needed to cross and which cable was the right one to use for this purpose. And she really didn't know what Jack was talking about.

"You were flirting with Yana."

"What?" She asked, genuinely confused at how he came to that conclusion. She dropped the bit of wiring she had been working with and stood up to stare at Jack. Sure, her face was about level with his feet, but that was irrelevant. When she met his gaze, she realised he _wasn't_ joking. "You're hallucinating."

"No, I know what I saw." Jack said, grinning, "And after you told me off for saying hello to a few people."

"I was not-!" she didn't even want to repeat his words, it was a totally ludicrous suggestion, "Jack, you need to get your mind out of the metaphorical gutter for a few minutes a day, otherwise you'll start thinking that everyone else is as bad as you are."

She returned to the wiring, concentrating on the work that needed to be done, but Jack was not about to give up, "Oh yeah?" he asked, she could still hear that insufferable grin in the tone of his voice, "Want me to list the signs?"

"No thank you." she said coldly, now working with another set of wires, which she had remembered were also needed.

"Cause it was pretty obvious from where I was standing." he persisted.

"Humans." she muttered derisively, deliberately loud enough for him to hear, "How many times a day do you actually think with your _brain_, Captain? Once? Twice? I think three would be pushing it."

Jack snorted, a strange noise somewhere between indignant choking and laughter. "Ouch, that hurts." he said sarcastically.

She heard footsteps, as he approached the hole in the floor, "He's how old, again?"

"No idea, but he's human, so he can't be that old." she muttered, before blinking and realising what Jack had just tried to do, "And that makes twice, so far, today."

He laughed, and walked away. She still heard him laughing for several seconds even after she heard the door of the TARDIS close.

Totally ridiculous idea. Time Lords don't do that sort of thing, hadn't for thousands of years before the Doctor's time. Sure, she knew all the theory, and understood every one of Captain Jack's obscene thoughts, but just because she admired Yana's scientific work, and had called him a genius, did not mean what that perverted human thought it meant!

x x x


	4. The Master

x x x

**Chapter 4: The Master**

x x x

"Extra power." the Doctor announced, as she emerged from the TARDIS, "Little bit of a cheat, but who's counting?" She was across the room before either Jack or Yana could even turn to look at her, and plugged the power lead into the system for the rocket. "Jack, you're in charge of the retro-feeds."

"Oh, am I glad to see that thing!" Martha cheered as she entered the room and spotted the TARDIS. The Doctor turned to look at her, and grinned brightly, but then Chantho rushed over to where Yana was sitting.

She looked worried as she asked, "Chan Professor, are you alright tho?"

Yana appeared to be having another... whatever it was that made him zone out and look like he was in pain. What word would fit best? 'Episode'? Bah, the wording didn't really matter, what was important was it really did not look like he was telling the truth when he said, "Fine. I'm fine." When Chantho continued to look concerned, he raised his voice to repeat, "I'm fine. Just get on with it." There's that temper again.

Jack turned to Martha, "Here, connect those circuits into the spar, same as the last lot. But _quicker!_"

Martha wandered off in the right direction to follow these instructions, throwing a mocking, "Yes sir!" over her shoulder at Jack.

The Doctor cautiously approached Yana. She did not want to get yelled at. It usually made her ('him'? past tense, male pronoun) yell back. "You don't have to keep working. We can handle it." she said in a soothing tone.

"It's just a headache." Yana insisted, "It's just- just noise inside my head, Doctor. Constant noise inside my head." while he wasn't raising his voice, he sounded like he was angry at this noise. Well, if you have a headache, or whatever, of course you'll get annoyed if it doesn't go away.

"What sort of noise?" she asked, kneeling down next to him.

Yana sighed, and seemed to think for a moment how best to describe the noise, "It's the sound of drums. More and more, as thought it's getting closer."

She frowned. This wasn't something she'd ever heard of, though she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject of human mental conditions. She understood how the brain worked, but could not list all the potential symptoms of every ailment that affected it. "When did it start?"

"Oh, I've had it all my life." Yana said distantly, "Every waking hour." Rather suddenly, his whole demeanour changed. He was used to this sound well enough, it seemed, to dismiss it completely once the worst had passed. Or at least to give that impression to other people. He turned to face her, and said with a smile, "Still, no rest for the wicked." Before standing up and making his way back to the main control panel.

A few seconds later, she stood too, but not before she caught the distinct sound of Jack snickering at her. It took her almost a minute to figure out what he thought was so funny, then she shook her head and chose to ignore him. For the sake of her own sanity, it was best to pretend the things Captain Jack suggested- especially to or about her- were not what he meant them to be.

x x x

The extra power from the TARDIS had bought them more time to prepare for the rocket's launch, but not by much. They still needed to deal with a minor snag down below the rocket itself. Stet radiation- which she had never heard of, and 'you wouldn't want to', as Yana had said dismissively- had killed whoever had been trying to align the couplings so that this footprint thing could work. The power feeds from everywhere but the TARDIS had been lost, and the TARDIS alone could not spare enough energy to hold back the radiation and keep the other machines running at the same time.

Jack had just done something incredibly stupid by attempting to reroute power without using proper safety precautions. It might have been worth it if he'd succeeded, but the foolish stunt he'd tried didn't even work! Well, she hadn't counted on another outburst of intelligence from him today, she hadn't been entirely joking when she'd said that earlier. Now he was dead, and Martha was trying to save him.

"The chamber's flooded, now?" the Doctor asked, thoughtfully.

Yana sighed, "Without the couplings, the engines will never start. It was all for nothing."

"So pessimistic." the Doctor said, before putting a hand on Martha's shoulder to pull her away from Jack, "Remember when we landed, Martha?" she asked softly.

Martha looked up from her attempt at CPR, and frowned, "He was dead then, too." she said quietly.

"Leave him. Come on, just leave him." the Doctor pulled her gently away from him. Martha reluctantly complied, shooting upset glances at Jack. "Professor. It looks like you have a room which no one can enter without dying. Right?"

Yana nodded, clearly upset by this failure, "Yes."

"Well..." At this moment, Jack inhaled sharply, alive once more. She smiled, and said, "I think I've got just the man."

Jack looked around, to find out where he was, but it was no surprise when the first thing he asked was, "Was someone kissing me?"

"One-track mind." the Doctor muttered, offering him a hand, to help him up. Jack accepted it, and as soon as he was on his feet, she laughed, "This way, Captain! Allons-y!"

And she turned and ran out of the lab, Jack followed, hot on her heels. "Was that a sexist remark? From you?" he called after her.

"No!" she called back over her shoulder, "Personal insult!"

Miraculously, she found exactly where she was going, without needing to ask. Usually, when the Doctor tried this, he would get lost. This time, they were lucky. The obvious route was down, and that was all the information she needed to find the right place.

As they approached the offending room, they saw the man who had been stationed outside. The same man who had fetched the TARDIS for her, she'd even got his rank earlier, "Lieutenant! Get on board the rocket." it was said as an order, she could give them when she needed to, even if she didn't like it, "I promise you're going to fly."

"But the chamber is flooded!" the Lieutenant protested, not making any move to leave his post.

"Trust me, we've found a way to deal with it. Now go!" she ordered. The Lieutenant seemed to sense that she was serious, and nodded before making a run for the nearest boarding ramp to the rocket.

The Doctor checked the monitoring system that the Lieutenant had just vacated, but then when she turned around to tell Jack to hurry up and get into the room, she saw that he had removed his coat and shirt. "Is that really necessary?" she demanded. "The radiation only seems to affect living things, not clothes!"

"Well, I look good, though." Narcissist. She rolled her eyes, and tried to ignore him again. Difficult when they had to cooperate to make this work.

Jack paused outside the room, and glanced back at her, "How long have you known?"

"Ever since I ran away from you." she answered seriously. "Good luck."

x x x

The instant the door closed behind him, he felt the burning. It wasn't like real fire, it burned in that odd stingy way that only usually manages to happen when you're actually too cold. He tried to shake the feeling off, but that seemed to make it worse. Better just to concentrate on what needed to be done, and get out of there as soon as possible.

This wasn't the first time he'd managed to stay alive through something that should kill him in seconds, but it was the first time he'd literally felt his skin burning and not died from it. Gwen had insisted on inviting the entire team to a movie, not that long ago, X-Men 3. He idly wondered if this was how the writers of that movie imagined Wolverine felt when he fought the Phoenix.

"Doctor, are you there?" Martha's voice sounded over the internal communications system.

"Yeah, I'm here. And Jack's in the room now." the Doctor answered. She was just outside the door, watching him.

"And still alive?" Martha asked. She's surprised? He'd died twice today, where she could see him. She'd tried CPR at least once, too. He smirked faintly at that last thought, before moving to the already open coupling controls and starting to type in the code to release the manual override.

"Oh yes." the Doctor answered.

"But he should evaporate." Yana's voice said, in shock. Yeah, encouraging thoughts. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Professor. Then the communications seemed to go down again.

"When did you realise?" the Doctor asked him.

"Earth. Eighteen ninety-two. Got in a fight on Ellis Island. Man shot me through the heart. Then I woke up." he said, shrugging, "Thought it was kind of strange, but then it never stopped."

The controls released, but he kept talking. He needed to keep talking, right now, or he'd never say it all.

"Fell off a cliff. Trampled by horses. World War One, World War Two. Poison. Starvation." Better not to list them all. So he picked one of the weirder ones to finish, "A stray javelin."

She looked a bit shocked by the list. He wondered how she'd react to some of the others. Slit throat with a broken bottle. Several stabbings. Dissected by Torchwood. No, he'd rather not think about them, anymore.

"In the end, I got the message." he shrugged, "I'm the man who can never die." he started trying to lift the manual override, but discovered very quickly that it was annoyingly heavy. And the radiation was making him feel ill. Like he was going to throw up over the whole thing, which he imagined might short a few circuits if it actually happened. "And all that time you knew."

"That's why I left you behind." she said, frowning, "It's difficult to explain. Even looking at you is... almost frightening. On a fundamental level, your just... wrong."

"Thanks." Jack said, sarcastically.

"It's true, though." she said, "You're not meant to be. Nothing is meant to be fixed in time, the way you are. I can sense it, and just looking at you makes my skin crawl. Even the TARDIS didn't like it, tried to shake you off. Flew all the way to the end of the universe trying to get rid of you."

"So what you're saying is you're, ah-" Finally, the machine finally locked, with a loud bang, and he could let go of it. "Prejudiced?" Now wouldn't that be ironic? The Doctor, who tried to reason with Daleks and who knew what else, prejudiced against one of her own friends.

She stared at him for a second, before answering, "Never thought of it like that."

"Shame on you!" Jack taunted, starting on the codes for the next infernal contraption. Infernal was a good word for it, considering the environment it found itself in.

She shrugged, something about the way she did that, it looked like she'd decided to dismiss the entire problem and just not do it again. He didn't see the point in demanding an apology. She was here now, he wasn't letting her abandon him again. Besides, she'd never admit to being wrong.

Instead, he changed the subject, "Last thing I remember, back when I was mortal, I was facing three Daleks. Death by extermination." What did those tin cans think he was, anyway? A cockroach? Well, it appeared that humanity _did_ have the same innate ability to surive, but still, the comparison, however unintentional, was offensive. "And then I came back to life. What happened?" He unlocked the manual override and began to struggle to lift the switch on this one. Just one more to go after this.

"Rose." one word, that's all she said. It seemed like she thought that was all that needed to be said. Sure, Rose was great, yeah, but she wasn't able to bring back the dead, last time he's seen her.

"I thought you'd sent her back home?" he asked.

"She came back." Even though her voice was strong, she seemed lost in the memory as she spoke. "Opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex itself."

"What does that mean, exactly?" he demanded.

"No one's ever meant to have that power. If a Time Lord did that, they'd become a god. A vengeful god. But she was human. Everything she did was so human. She brought you back to life, but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever. Ironic, really. The final act of the Time War was to give life."

"I meant to ask before. Canary Wharf?" he asked. His voice cracked slightly as he said it. He wasn't sure if it was the fear that she was dead, or the radiation getting to him. He didn't really want to know, either.

"Oh, she went to a parallel world, still alive." the Doctor said, dropping the morbid tone, just a little.

"Do you think she could change me back?"

She shook her head, "She's trapped there, now. And even if she could come back, the power of the Vortex was gone from her long before that."

"I'm sorry." he said, frowning.

He knew how much the Doctor had cared for Rose. Even he was hurt at the knowledge that she was gone forever, and he'd only ever seen her as a friend. At least, after the Doctor had threatened him. The Doctor didn't say anything, just stared off to one side, away from this deadly room, away from Jack.

"I went back to her estate, in the nineties." he said, trying to prevent the conversation from dying just yet. She was watching him, now. Impassive, emotionless. Cold, like the death in this room. But he didn't stop talking. "Just once or twice. Watched her growing up. Never said hello, you know, timelines and all that."

"Do you want to die?" she asked rather suddenly.

"This one's a little stuck." he said, still fighting with the manual override switch. He didn't want to answer that. He wasn't entirely sure how to, anymore. When Torchwood first found him, he'd have said yes in an instant. Not now. Now he didn't know anymore.

"Jack." she said, raising her voice to get his attention. She was staring at him, still cold. He didn't like when the Doctor got like that, it usually meant something really _was_ going to die.

"I thought I did." he said, shaking his head, "I don't know." He had to change the subject, had to make her stop staring at him like that! "But this lot, you see them out here, surviving, and that's fantastic." Finally, that switch connected, and he moved on to the last one.

She smiled, but it took several seconds for it to reach her eyes. Finally, the ice-queen illusion dropped, and she was really smiling, "You might be out there somewhere." she noted.

If he really could live forever, then it's quite likely, even at this time. "I could go meet myself?" he suggested. He didn't mean it, really. He knew it wasn't an intelligent thing to do, to meet your past or future self. There was an entire chapter in the Time Agent's handbook about why it was a Very Bad Idea.

She laughed, "Only man you're ever going to be happy with." that cruel glint flashed through her eyes, an echo of the ice, but it didn't last this time.

He laughed as well, not entirely offended. Why should he be? He knew he was vain, he didn't really mind the snide suggestion that much. "Oh, this new regeneration, it's kind of cheeky." he said, still laughing.

She shrugged, trying to look innocent. Not that it was possible after what she'd just said. With thoughts like that running through her genius mind, she could probably beat him at his own game if she really wanted to. But the Doctor always failed to show any interest in trying, much to Jack's dismay whenever he was flirting with him- her, whatever, did it really matter?

Finally, the last switch locked, "Now, get out of there, come on!" she shouted, turning and running away from the door.

As soon as he was out of that room, he threw his shirt back on while the Doctor called up to the Lieutenant to check that they were ready for launch. Then they both set about preparing the systems down here. This involved an infuriating amount of flicking switches and running back and forth. No time for talking, he certainly couldn't concentrate on remembering which switch was supposed to do what, and holding a conversation at the same time.

Apparently, the Doctor could, though. Martha had shown up, and the two were talking, while the Doctor continued to work on her end of the controls.

"Ah, Martha! Nearly there!" she cheered, "The Footprint, it's a gravity pulse. It stamps down, the rocket shoots up. Bit primitive. Gonna take the both of us to keep it stable."

"Doctor." there was an urgency to her tone that demanded to be listened to. Good thing listening wasn't on the list of things that would be distracting right now. He was really trying to concentrate on making sure his end of the controls didn't manage to blow up all of the passengers on that rocket. "It's the Professor. He's got this watch- he's got a fob watch- it's the same as yours. Same writing on it. Same everything."

Jack glanced up, to see the Doctor had frozen. After a second, she shook her head, "Don't be ridiculous."

"I asked him." Martha continued, "He said he's had it his whole life."

There was clearly something here that Jack did not know about, and he decided the best way to get an explanation- especially when you're in the same room as the Doctor- was to play dumb rather than trying to work it out from the limited information available. "So he's got the same watch?" he snapped, across the room. He really thought the Doctor should be monitoring her control panel, right now.

"Yeah, but it's not a watch, it's this... chameleon thing." Martha said. Luckily, the tone Jack had used snapped the Doctor out of her shock, and she was working on the controls again.

"No, no no." she said, not taking her eyes off what she was doing, "It's a sort of device. Rewrites biology. Can change a Time Lord into a human." Jack looked up, suddenly. No longer paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing. This just got a whole lot more interesting.

"And it's the same watch!" Martha insisted.

"It can't be." the Doctor said. Denial. There's got to be a reason why she'd _not_ want another Time Lord to have survived.

"That means he could be a Time Lord." Jack shouted, as the Doctor turned to fix something that had just started sounding an alarm. "You might not be the last one!"

"Jack, keep that level!" she shouted back. Okay, distractions bad. Try to pay attention to _not_ blowing up the rocket. And he'd worried that the Doctor might get distracted. Ha!

"But that's brilliant, isn't it?" Martha asked, confused by the Doctor's refusal to accept what she was saying.

"Yes, yes. Of course it is." she said distractedly, still trying to stop the alarm. Jack only just caught her next words, because they were muttered under her breath, "Depends which one." then she began to raise her voice, "But they're all gone now. All of them. They died!"

"Not if he was human." Jack noted. Talk about stating the obvious, and to the Doctor of all people.

"Did he say anything, Martha?" she suddenly asked, turning to stare at her. Jack couldn't see it, but judging by the brief flash of fear on Martha's face, it was the ice-queen stare, again. "Tell me!"

"He looked at the watch like he could hardly see it. Like that perception filter thing." she answered.

The Doctor turned and slammed her hand onto a button, which finally silenced the alarm, "Can he see it now?" she asked, quietly. The silence was almost deafening, and her words seemed to echo.

Martha's silence was enough of an answer. Yes. But why was the Doctor so afraid of this?

x x x

The Doctor turned, and resumed working on the controls, as the countdown neared its end. Save these people first. Find out who the other Time Lord was second. Priorities. 'Don't panic', very sage advice from a rather interesting Earth novel.

Who could it be? She kind of hoped it wasn't any of her former 'friends'. They had all, at one point or another in his past, attempted to kill him. Except Drax, Drax was ok, a bit annoying, but still. Most of the others she could remember the names- or more accurately, aliases- of were either stuck up bureaucrats unlikely to be ingenious enough to hide here, or female and thus even less likely to be Professor Yana.

Oh, she really hoped it was Drax.

"If he escaped the Time War, then it's the perfect place to hide. The end of the universe." Jack continued. He seemed to like the idea of another Time Lord. Somehow, she wasn't that surprised. If he'd ever met some of the less friendly ones, he'd be more wary.

"Think what the Face of Boe said." Martha added, "His dying words. He said-" She turned the final dial, and the rocket began to fire its engines, startling Martha, causing her to scream. Brilliant timing. The Doctor really did not want to hear those words right now.

And very suddenly, she felt it. The presence of another Time Lord. She was still staring at where the rocket had launched from, the remaining fire from its engines. She couldn't look away, too entranced by this new presence.

Oh no, not him. Anyone but him. He should have been dead a dozen times over, not even counting normal regenerations.

The Master.

And he could sense her, too. She could hear the laughter in her head. The pure malice. She closed her eyes, and blocked it out. Completely locked her mind against it. When had he/she _stopped_ blocking out the rest of the universe? She, definitely. Can't have been long after the encounter with the Varisian. She could make a very rude remark about the female mind, right now, but it would be self-depreciating, so not something to say aloud.

He was between her and the TARDIS. What should she do? Charge straight for him, try to stop him? Foolish, easily anticipated. Besides, that rocket might need a boost before it leaves the atmosphere, and this control station was the only way to do that. Priorities. Save humans, then deal with him.

She grabbed the communications device, "Lieutenant. Come in. Have you reached escape velocity?" she asked. Her voice was calm, too calm.

"Affirmative." she immediately dropped the device and started running. She heard the Lieutenant's voice, as he continued to speak, but she was too far away already to make out what he said.

"Come on!" she called as she passed Jack and Martha, sprinting for the laboratory.

Emotions give off a strong presence. He would recognise where she was if she dropped the facade of calm. Although, he did already know where she had been moments ago. She just avoided getting hit by a door as it slid closed in her face. All the doors are connected into the laboratory. It must be his doing.

"Open it." she said, still not raising her voice more than was necessary to be heard. She drew the sonic screwdriver, and began trying to work on the edges of the door, to break the seals that held it the more primitive way, while Jack worked on the access codes.

Jack won that race. The door slid open again, and she ran through, the other two hot on her heels. Somehow, the air of calm she projected seemed to be scaring Martha more, and encouraging Jack to be bolder. Not that a man who cannot die needs such encouragement, but still.

"Martha, calm down. It'll be alright." she said, barely out of breath, as they ran. Right into a group of the 'Futurekind'. How they got in, well there was only one possible explanation. She skidded to a halt and turned back to find another way around, the other two managing to stay close to her. There had to be another way around. There was _always_ another way around.

"Stay calm? Right." Martha said sarcastically, and clearly panicked.

"No time to explain." This looked like a good corridor. This one right here. No reason a human would see for it, but she just knew it was right. She turned down it, outrunning Jack once more, in spite of his best efforts to take the lead.

Sure enough, it didn't take them long to reach the lab. Naturally, the door was locked. Jack started on the access codes again without being asked.

She tried the door seals, but they were stronger than the previous door. She frowned, glancing over her shoulder when Martha shrieked. The Futurekind had caught up with them. For predatory animals, it didn't help these creatures that they ran slightly slower than their chosen prey.

Jack gave up on the codes, and smashed the door controls with his gun. "You're allowed to shoot them now." she said to him, as they all hurried into the lab and Jack tried to hold the door closed. The Futurekind had gotten to the door just as they had closed it, and at least one of them had a clawed hand around the edge of the door.

And there he was. The Master. She hesitated for only a second when she saw that he was wounded. It was just enough for him to back up into the TARDIS and slam the door in her face. She cursed under her breath, a word that roughly translated into English as 'damn'. '_Compassion will be the final death of me!_' Though she would never give up that emotion, even if she knew this for a fact.

She tried the lock, but he was faster, first blocking the primitive key she only even used for aesthetic effect, then when she tried the sonic screwdriver she found he had activated the deadlocks, sealing the ship against her.

She frowned, and touched the outside of the TARDIS with one hand, closing her eyes. She had to keep him out of her mind, but she reached to the TARDIS itself. '_Intruder. Stop him._' She heard a faint whine from the ship, but nothing happened. '_What do you mean, he's not unwelcome?_' "Let me in!" she shouted, wondering if he actually heard her at all. Sounds outside the front door could only be heard in the control room (although impacts to any part of the exterior could be heard anywhere inside). If he'd left that area, she was wasting her breath. "Let me in, please!"

No answer.

She could hear Martha and Jack speaking, but it seemed so unimportant right now. She didn't even register their words.

"I'm begging you! We're the only two left, you have to listen to me!"

Still no answer.

She had yet to take her hand from the TARDIS' door, and now she tried asking once more, '_Just let me in. Please._' The ship answered, and she frowned, '_Why not?_' The impression she got from the TARDIS was of hope, sad but desperate. The TARDIS sensed a possible future, relative to her own personal timeline, but as usual refused to share details. '_Stubborn, that's what you are._' Besides, from past experience, those possibilities the TARDIS sensed rarely actually end as well as she would like.

But then the TARDIS seemed to burn her hand, and she stepped back as golden light flared out through the usually opaque windows of the TARDIS. Regeneration energy. She backed away further when she heard the scream.

She heard Jack shouting her name- title, alias, who the hell cares?- but she couldn't take her eyes off the TARDIS. She felt betrayed, why had her TARDIS- _her TARDIS_- allowed the Master to lock her out? And then to regenerate? It was theoretically possible to regenerate without the aid of some form of contact to the Vortex, usually a TARDIS (sometimes, when Gallifrey had existed, the Eye of Harmony or even the Matrix could be used for the same purpose), but it was very dangerous, highly inadvisable, he wouldn't be stupid enough to do it without the TARDIS' help unless he had no choice.

Finally, he deigned to speak to her. His voice echoing out through the room from the TARDIS' communications systems. "Now, then. Doctor." he paused, only for a fraction of a second, but he had obviously been about to say something else. "Oh, new voice! Hello. Hello."

'_Oh, real mature._' Then again, it wasn't uncommon for regeneration to make one a bit unstable for a few hours. Hopefully he'd get over it and be back to his usual morbid self- which was likely to be so much easier to deal with, judging by the first seven and a half words of this conversation- relatively soon.

"Anyway." he continued, still sounding like a human might if they'd had way too much caffeine. "Why don't we stop and have a nice little chat while I tell you all my plans and you can work out a way to stop me. I don't think!" Well, he's learned something since last time they met, then. This could be a problem, though.

"Hold on, I know that voice!" Martha shouted across the room. She glanced up to see that Martha and Jack were fighting to keep the door closed against the 'Futurekind'. She still didn't like the choice of name for those creatures, and couldn't even think of them without mentally adding the quotation marks around the word.

But in her opinion, this was far more important than avoiding getting eaten by mutant cannibals. "I'm begging you. Just stop, think about this! Please!"

"Use my name." Narcissistic egotistical prat!

But in spite of those thoughts, she didn't hesitate. "Master. Please listen to me."

"Hmm, let me think. No!"

He started to power up the TARDIS, to depart from this time. There wasn't much she could do at this point, but she didn't exactly feel as bad as she probably should have at her choice. The TARDIS had betrayed her. She knew this would hurt her precious time-ship, but she couldn't think of a more logical way to stop the Master from getting away so easily.

She used the sonic screwdriver's link to the TARDIS to blow several circuits, locking him out of the navigation systems. She tried to disable other controls, as well, but she heard him shouting, "Oh no you don't!" as he blocked off the connection.

He could still make a time-jump, but now he couldn't change the target coordinates. He'd only be able to go back to Earth, at around the last time the TARDIS had been there. Better than allowing that maniac complete freedom, not exactly going to make things easy for her, but it was better than nothing.

Just as the TARDIS prepared to dematerialise, she heard his taunting voice call, "End of the universe! Have fun! Bye bye!" then he was gone.

And they were trapped.

x x x


	5. Harold Saxon

x x x

**Chapter 5: Harold Saxon**

x x x

Politics made him sick. Literally nauseous. Always had done. Bureaucracy made him want to kill people. It was very annoying that he couldn't do that just yet. Oh, soon, but not right now.

He hadn't actually come up with a plan when he had taunted the Doctor about it. Just a relatively blatant observation about past mistakes. Now, however, he had several plans. Always helps to have a backup. Or six. He had six.

The first thing he had done was try to track down the Doctor in this time. He'd managed to manipulate the TARDIS to bring him back a year and a half earlier than she'd wanted. Considering she was the Doctor's ship, she had been surprisingly compliant about that. Oh, but she just would not let him repair the damage the Doctor had done, even though fried circuitry must really hurt her. No matter, he would find ways to hurt her even more, later, anyway.

The simplest way to find the Doctor was to find Martha Jones. Easy enough. Oh, how he loved the internet. Wonderful little invention, so easy to get any information he wanted, even if it was classified and encrypted and a whole host of other things Torchwood and UNIT liked to do to keep people out.

He'd gotten help, too. A nice willing little minion who had actually _invented_ one of the better search engines. Very helpful, rich too. Money helped, made things a lot easier. Although if he'd really wanted, he could have gotten into a bank's computers with relatively little effort. It helped to have a legitimate source, though. It's just good business.

Now, plans to hurt the Doctor.

Number one; Take over the British government. With the new minion's help, he had funded a political campaign. If you want to rule the world, it can't hurt to have an existing position of power to use as a stepping stone. Especially since he had the time to do so. Not that anyone would have really paid attention to the campaign without his usual touch- hypnosis. On a world-wide scale. The minion helped speed up the creation of that project somewhat, too. It didn't hurt to have an expert on Earth computers who could write a virus that would take down every system on the planet, if he felt so inclined. This minion was a natural. Completely lacking any evidence of morals, only seventeen, and filthy stinking rich.

Number two; Martha Jones. Miss Jones' family were very cooperative, after he had found a good government position. Minister of Defence, makes it easy to claim you're looking for a dangerous criminal. Or to get access to military technology, but that was part of another plan.

Number three; Captain Jack. This one was trickier. Jack was smart. Nowhere near as smart as the Master was, but still, enough to be a threat. Buddying up with Torchwood Three was easier than he anticipated. Just give them a little funding for their research on alien tech, and they were his. Literally, he had full access to all their files. He had even met with the Captain at one point, which amused him to no end. It was also a rather disturbing encounter, considering the Captain's tendency to flirt with everyone he meets.

Number four; UNIT. His genius minion- genius by human standards anyway- got into their files easily. Having invented the technology, he was a lot more efficient at using it than the Master, and there was no reason _not _ to use him for this purpose. A few 'accidental' meetings with UNIT operatives, and he had made 'friends'- brainwashed minions- there, too. Too bad the Brigadier wasn't working there, anymore, that would have been even more fun.

Number five; Lazarus. This one had been a bit of an accident. He had been looking for the internet-millionaire he had recruited, and found this old man at the same event. Another 'genius'. Quotation marks definitely required for this one. Lazarus' research was interesting, and he helped it along with some of the minion's money, and his own knowledge of the basic principles involved. Sonic resonance, oh, he had laughed when the Doctor had shown up at that one. And now he had security camera footage of the Doctor. Not the right face, obviously before the accident that had turned him female, but who really cares? Still looked better than most of the Doctor's previous incarnations, very little to insult about that, unfortunately.

Number six; Torchwood London. As soon as had been reasonably possible, he'd done his best to gain control over Torchwood, as a whole. London had been a lot easier than Cardiff, because he had been able to successfully brainwash the leader of that branch of the organisation, some woman named Yvonne Hartman. It was actually quite fortunate from his perspective that seven months after he arrived, Torchwood go boom. Not his work, he was sad to say. Quite a frightening sight, it was, too. Daleks and Cybermen all over the bloody place!

He was sure nothing particularly bad would happen- even though it looked perfectly horrific- because the Doctor was here, he could sense it. He had consciously blocked his mind to stop the Doctor from knowing he was there, but he could tell that this was a Doctor before he had met her at the end of the universe, so he wasn't too bothered about the Dalek/Cyberman invasion, because the Doctor wouldn't let them win as long as he was still alive to fight.

Still, it couldn't have hurt that he'd maintained his direct control over the Cyberman that had once been Yvonne, when the other Cybermen almost managed to stop the Doctor from whatever he was up to. But what really interested him was Torchwood itself. Oh, so much extra-terrestrial technology just laying around in their basement, when he went to investigate the aftermath. Some of this would be very useful.

Number seven; the Toclafane. Last, but by no means least, it was actually his favourite and most important plan of all. They had also been an accident. He had tried to return to the end of the universe, intending to see if the Doctor had survived or not. He hated the Doctor with a passion, but he wanted to make her suffer and that would be incredibly difficult to manage if she died. He wasn't sure why, but he somehow landed on the wrong planet, in spite of the Doctor's sabotage of the navigation circuits. He would blame the TARDIS for the discrepancy. Obstinate piece of junk.

He had found himself on a desolate and dying world, and once he checked with the TARDIS' scanners, he recognised the location. Utopia. Didn't look that Utopian to him. Then it had clicked. He had been the one to send out that message.

Helping to create the Toclafane had taken a great deal of time, but since the TARDIS brought him to mere seconds after he left, every time he returned to Earth, it wasn't really a problem. Something about it was sadistically therapeutic. Decapitating helpless victims was fun! Encouraging them to decapitate each other, and in a few rare cases themselves, even more fun! It seemed silly, now, that they had ever feared becoming the so-called 'Futurekind', when in the end they willingly chose to become something so much worse. They had actually started the self-mutilation of their own volition, during a decade-long discrepancy between the time he sent the message to call them, and returned to find them, he only encouraged their already self-destructive behaviour and used it to his advantage, he hadn't even needed to start it.

He understood some of the mentality of the creators of the Cybermen a bit more, now. But of course, he learned from the mistakes of others so as not to make them himself. The Toclafane were designed to be completely subservient to him. Vicious to others, but only at his orders. Not through computer chips or any other easily broken piece of junk, but a powerful hypnotic command, loyalty forced into their minds, each one individually dominated and bent to his will. The regression to child-like behaviour had begun some time before that, but this process accelerated it. They were his responsibility, now, they would have no purpose but fear without him.

It was almost time, now, he could feel it. The Doctor was here again, but this time there was a different sense to the presence. Calmer, more calculating. Like ice, instead of fire. This was after the 'accident'. The contrast between the two was most noticeable now that he had spent so much time remotely observing the Doctor's previous form.

When he reached out to sense her, he only caught the briefest glimpse of where she had been, before she was gone again. Cardiff.

If she was going to come back from the end of the universe, it would happen very soon, he knew. He idly wondered how she would manage it, or even if. Give her a couple of weeks to figure it out for herself, but then he might go back to the end of the universe again to ensure she somehow survived. Of course, if he had to do that, he would have to conceal his presence and avoid being seen. Still, it would be worth the effort. No fun having a dead nemesis. What's the point when there's no challenge to the game?

x x x

"End of the universe! Have fun! Bye bye!"

"Real mature." the Doctor muttered, before turning her attention to the other two. This was not good. She idly wondered if even Jack could survive a ravenous pack of cannibals, then immediately decided that she did not want to know the answer to that question.

She rushed over to join them in holding the door closed.

"Any bright ideas?" Jack asked, impatiently. Well, he probably had every right to be impatient, considering the amount of time she'd ignored him to try to reason with the Master.

"Give me your arm." she ordered. He correctly assumed she was asking for the vortex manipulator, and gave her his left arm. She pulled out the sonic screwdriver and started trying to fix the broken piece of junk. "Hold still!" she added, when his arm moved and she accidentally hit the wrong wire, which put the target coordinates off by about a century. Good thing she wasn't trying to do something more sensitive, like defusing a bomb attached to his arm.

"I'm telling you, it's broken, it hasn't worked for years!" Jack snapped.

"That's because you didn't have me." she retorted, not looking away from what she was doing, having undone the damage his movement had caused, and now finishing the rest of her rather rushed repairs. "Martha, grab on!" and when Martha didn't react fast enough for her liking (only half a second, but they were in mortal peril here) she reached out to seized Martha's hand, placing it on the vortex manipulator, and activating it.

The Vortex is actually very pretty. When you look at it from within the safety of a TARDIS with all the temporal shields activated. When using that blasted space-hopper, it burned at her mind. Blinding pain and indefinable beauty at the same time, for what could have been a nanosecond or millions of years. Time has no meaning here, that's why it can be used to travel from one point in time to another.

When they landed, the aching pain echoed throughout her entire body, and she stumbled on the ground that did not match the surface she had been standing on an instant and an eternity ago.

She heard pained laughter from Jack, as she caught her breath. She chose to ignore his amusement, there weren't many possible reasons for it. Hysterical relief, maybe, but more likely it had been because of where his hand had been while she'd been working on the vortex manipulator. Maybe both?

Martha gasped, and whimpered, "Oh, my head."

"Time travel without a capsule. That's a killer." she glanced at Jack as she said it. He really had been killed trying to hitch a lift on the outside of the TARDIS, and that was the only attempt at humour she felt inclined to make right now.

She led the way out of the ally, trying to pretend she didn't hear the disturbing cracking noises as Jack felt the need to check that his head was still securely attached to his body. Once out on the main street, and still walking, Jack spoke up, "Still, at least we made it. Earth, twenty-first century by the look of it." he laughed nervously, "Talk about lucky."

"That wasn't luck, that was me." the Doctor said coldly, "Although it didn't help that you kept moving, we could have landed in twenty-one-oh-eight, instead."

He laughed again, smiling a bit too brightly. She chose to ignore this, once again. Better than trying to argue with him, arguing about it only encouraged him. "The moral is, if you're going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex-time agent and his vortex manipulator."

"Wouldn't have helped much without a Time Lord and her sonic screwdriver." the Doctor retorted brightly.

"But this Master bloke, he's got the TARDIS." Martha pointed out. Yes, we noticed that, thank you very much. "He could be anywhere in time and space."

"No, he's here. He has to be." the Doctor said, frowning. She was trying to sense him, but it wasn't working. He was blocking her, somehow. But he HAD to be here, in this time and on this world, she was sure of it. She consciously projected her presence for him to see, not where she was, but simply that she was on Earth. Maybe if he knew she was here, he would try to spring a trap or something of the sort.

"Who is he, anyway?" Martha asked, "That voice at the end, that wasn't the Professor."

"If the Master's a Time Lord, then he must have regenerated." Jack said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

To the Doctor it was, but to Martha it couldn't have made much sense. "What does that mean?" Martha asked.

Jack shrugged, the sort of gesture that implied he only knew the end result and not the purpose or process of what he was talking about, "It means he's changed his face, voice, body, everything. A new man."

It started off faint, barely noticeable, a distant tapping easily drowned out by her companions' voices. But then it started to echo, and drew the Doctor's full attention away from them. Something in that sound struck at her mind, like a telepathic attack, but when she searched for its source all she saw was a human tapping a coin against a mug, across the street. Nothing unusual about the human in question, she could sense that much from here. The echoing was in her own mind.

"Then how are we going to find him?" Martha asked.

The Doctor blinked to force the sound out of her mind, tuning out the mere existence of that human across the street, and turned her full attention back to Martha. "I'll know him." she said simply. It was true enough, she would easily be able to see what he was if she could just find him. "As soon as I see him. I'll recognise he's a Time Lord."

Once more, she reached out with her mind, a question. She might not be able to sense the Master, but if he was looking for her, then he should be aware of what she was asking, even if neither of them were quite proficient enough to transmit actual words telepathically without physical contact. Very simply, 'Was that you?'

"But hold on." Martha said, clearly thinking. It was literally possible to see her mind working, even without any telepathic abilities, "If he could be anyone-" she suddenly looked frightened, "We missed the election."

The laughter echoed in the Doctor's mind for only a second, as she glanced past Martha, and her eyes landed on a public television screen. As if he was daring her to watch it. Taunting her.

"But it can't be." Martha continued, oblivious.

The Doctor stood and walked slowly towards the screen, which was showing the news. The other two followed her. As if solely for her benefit, the newscaster's voice suddenly sounded louder than it had on previous stories. "Mr Saxon has returned from the Palace, and is greeting the crowds inside Saxon Headquarters."

The instant his face appeared on the screen, she knew it was him. Even on a television screen, the differences between him and the humans around him screamed out at her. The Master.

"I said I knew that voice." Martha said, slightly stunned, "When he spoke inside the TARDIS. I've heard that voice hundreds of times! I've seen him, we all have! That was the voice of Harold Saxon."

The name did sound familiar. The Racnoss ship was shot down under his orders, she remembered hearing Mr Saxon mentioned by the soldiers then. Somehow not surprising. Even the Doctor would have done the same, knowing what the Time Lords knew of the Racnoss.

"That's him." she whispered, "He's Prime Minister. The Master is Prime Minister of Great Britain." This was not good news at all. He was always trouble, even at his weakest, but give him a little bit of power, and very bad things tended to happen.

And now the Master stepped forward to speak directly to the camera, "This country has been sick." and there was that laughter in her mind again. This was a live broadcast, and it was somehow all just for her, "This country needs healing. This country needs medicine. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that what this country really needs, right now, is a Doctor."

'_Oh, very subtle._' she thought sarcastically, hoping he heard the sentiment. He smiled, as she thought it. He probably had heard. '_Smug git._' she added for good measure before turning away from the screen.

"What do we do?" Martha asked, still in shock.

"We need to find out all we can about what he's done here." the Doctor answered quickly.

"Your place or mine, Martha?" Jack asked, jokingly.

"Jack, can we drop the innuendo for five seconds?" the Doctor asked. She actually saw him start to count, his mouth moving to form the numbers without speaking. She rolled her eyes, "Martha, your flat is near here, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Let's go."

And Martha turned to start running towards where she lived. It was only a couple of streets away.

x x x

"Home!" Martha cheered, as they entered the flat.

Jack looked around the small and cluttered room. It really didn't look like she'd been gone long, and he wondered how long she'd been travelling relative to how long ago she left this flat. Obviously, she hadn't expected to leave when she did, there were still clothes hanging on a rack next to the door. Nice underwear. Time travel is fun like that, though, she could have been with the Doctor for years, and only left the flat an hour ago, for all he knew.

"I assume you've got something here with internet access?" the Doctor asked immediately.

Jack took out his cell phone, and dialled for Torchwood. Maybe he could get better information from them than from the normal publicly accessible files.

"Jack, who are you phoning? We can't tell anyone where we are!" the Doctor said indignantly.

He shrugged and hung up, "Just some friends of mine, but there's no reply." he said, frowning. There was always someone in the Hub during the day, unless there was a major apocalypse happening, but even then Ianto had that cell phone with a remote link to the Hub's number. Unless they were all out of range, or in mortal peril- or worse, but he tried not to think about that possibility- he should have gotten an answer.

"Here we go." Martha said, handing the Doctor a laptop.

Looks like normal public- and easily falsified- information was the best they were going to get, "I can show you the Saxon websites." Jack said, taking the laptop and setting it on a table, while he took the chair in front of it, "He's been around for ages." He immediately typed in the familiar address on the browser, and waited for the information to load.

He was trying not to think too much about the fact that this Master person was Harold Saxon. He'd met Harold Saxon, at one point when he had been Minister for Defence. Acquired government funding for some of Tosh's pet projects from him. He _had_ thought it was a bit weird, at the time, that Mr Saxon had completely ignored his attempts at flirting, but he'd been too intent on getting funding for his team to think twice about it.

Maybe it was a Time Lord thing? The Doctor ignored it when he flirted with him- her, whatever- too. Funny how she always managed to tell him off when he flirted with anyone else, though. He would have to call her on jealousy next time she tried it.

"That's so weird." Martha said, behind him, "It's the day after the election. That's only four days after I met you." He glanced over his shoulder at her, wondering why she considered that in any way surprising.

"We went flying all round the universe, while he was here all the time." the Doctor said, frowning distantly. As if she wasn't really paying her full attention to Martha. Or to anything in this room. He'd noticed her zone out like that earlier, just before the news broadcast, paying just enough attention to hold the conversation, but still looking at something miles away.

"You gonna tell us who he is?" Martha asked, in a determined tone.

And suddenly she was back, he wasn't sure how he could tell, but she was now entirely focused on some combination of Martha and the computer screen Jack was working at, "He's a Time Lord."

"Oh come on, there's more than that!" Martha snapped, "I mean, who'd call himself 'the Master'?"

Jack considered answering her, having acquired copies of some of UNIT's files after a pleasant evening with a couple of the more flexible UNIT officers. He knew the Master was a 'dangerous criminal' according to these files, 'not to be underestimated' was another quote, and 'Moriarty to the Doctor's Holmes' was one particularly interesting officer's comment. But the Doctor spoke first.

"That's all you really want to know." the Doctor said in a tone of finality, before changing the subject with the same breath, "Now, Jack, show me Harold Saxon."

x x x

Tisha Jones was a bit disconcerted by her new job. Mostly because she wasn't sure what, exactly, she was supposed to be doing. Oh, she had been told to just stand there and look pretty, but she was sure that was an idle joke. Possibly even genuine flirting, she wasn't entirely sure. After the Lazarus incident, she was a bit more wary of attractive powerful men, but certainly wouldn't say no to Mr Saxon, given the chance.

Now however, a woman approached her, as she lurked uncertainly outside Mr Saxon's office. The door was ajar right now, but Tish was too good a girl to peek. Not when she already knew he was just going over boring paperwork, anyway. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but no one is allowed to see Mr Saxon, right now."

Mr Saxon's voice shouted out from the office, "Not nobody, not nohow!"

She laughed nervously, then turned her attention back to the strange woman, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Oh, it's just an interview, minor details. It won't take a minute, I'm sure." the woman answered briskly, as if Tish herself was just a minor annoyance not worth even looking at while speaking to her.

"I'm sorry, you heard Mr Saxon, nobody is allowed in at the moment. He's very busy." Tish said, trying to sound apologetic, but this woman was so outright rude, in her opinion, that she had difficulty feigning the emotion.

The woman opened her mouth to protest, but then, "Oh alright then. Let her in." She glanced behind her to see the door had opened and Mr Saxon was standing there, smiling as always. "Oh, and Tish. No calls, no other visitors. If anyone else gets in here you're fired." and with that he stepped back to let the woman in. The door shut with finality behind her, and Tish was left to wonder what she'd just done to deserve such a threat.

In any other circumstances, she would have put her ear to the door to find out, but she knew well enough that the conference rooms and offices were completely sound-proof, so there was no point. Instead she leaned against the wall next to the door and proceeded to obediently keep everyone else out.

x x x

It really is amazing how an entire website can be created to tell you about a person, and really not say anything at all. The Harold Saxon website was completely devoid of any useful information whatsoever. His 'policies' were generic platitudes. His 'history' was rather standard, as if he'd picked up someone else's life and pasted his own face onto it, which, knowing the Master, could not be ruled out. Honestly, it wasn't any different from any other politician's website, if you thought about it.

Jack had shown them the whole thing. Every little pointless page of the site. Nothing was of interest, nothing at all. Finally, the Doctor gave up on actually reading, and went to sit in a corner, while Jack re-read the site, looking for holes in the non-story.

"Former Minister of Defence, first came to prominence when he shot down the Racnoss on Christmas Eve." Jack was saying. Yes, she'd already read that. "Nice work by the way." Jack added, turning to look at her with a bemused smile.

She frowned, "Yeah, thanks." it was almost sarcastic, but not quite. She hated killing, even if it was kill or be killed.

"But he goes back years, he's famous, everyone knows the story." Martha protested, "Look." she took over the laptop from Jack, and clicked on a link to bring up the biography page. Again. As if the Doctor hadn't already read this. "Cambridge University, rugby blue, won the athletics thing, wrote a novel, went into business, everything. He's got a whole life!"

"But it's just a story. It has to be." the Doctor said, quietly, staring into the distance again. She still couldn't sense him, although now she was making it more difficult on herself by trying to hide herself and still look for him at the same time. But then suddenly she felt his presence quite strongly. It screamed in her mind, thoughts of blood and death, and maniacal laughter. She blocked it out immediately, disgusted.

She must have visibly flinched or paled, because Martha was at her side in an instant, "Doctor? Are you alright?"

"That's what I get for trying to read him." she muttered, "Always avoided it in the past, stupid to try now."

"I don't understand?" Martha asked.

"I think... he just killed someone."

Jack looked up sharply at her, "Who?"

"No idea." she answered, frowning. Explaining to the humans how she could sense the Master's presence was not something she felt like doing right now, for a start it was _very_ complicated, and they couldn't afford to waste the time.

"Is that like the same way you knew he was here when we arrived?" Martha asked.

"No." she answered, shaking her head, "I knew he was here because when he was stealing the TARDIS, I broke the navigation matrix, fused the coordinated permanently, so he can only travel between the end of the universe and Earth in this time."

"'This time'... bit vague?" Jack asked.

"Well, right about now, give or take, ah... eighteen months?" she offered weakly, "Earliest he could have arrived here is eighteen months ago."

"Doesn't explain having a whole life here." Jack noted.

"The Master always had some... natural charms." Jack raised an eyebrow at that, but she quickly shook her head, "No, Jack! More like hypnotism. But this should be beyond even him."

"I was gonna vote for him." Martha said suddenly.

"Really?" the Doctor asked, looking up at her.

"Well, it was before I even met you." Martha answered, defensively, "And I liked him."

"Me too." Jack said, nodding.

"Why do you say that?" the Doctor asked. It wasn't surprising to her that if the rest of the country had been affected, then these two had been as well. Still, she needed to ensure the hypnotic suggestion wouldn't make them turn on her. Jack opened his mouth to speak, but when he hesitated, looking unsure of how to answer that, she continued, "What was his policy, what did he stand for?"

Martha frowned, "I dunno. He always sounded... good." she said, distantly. Her hand was tapping, that same beat that the Doctor had noticed earlier, "Like you could trust him." Martha sounded genuinely confused as she tried to find a logical reason why she had liked Harold Saxon, "Just nice." and there was an echo again, something around the tapping of her hands, not genuinely audible, but definitely something there, "He spoke about... I can't really remember, but it was good. Just the sound of his voice."

"Your hands..." the Doctor said quietly, and Martha's hands went perfectly still, "That tapping. That rhythm. What are you doing?"

"I don't know. It's nothing, it's just... I don't know!" Martha snapped. Even though her tone was defensive, it was clear she wasn't actually hiding anything. Whatever it was, it was directly connected to how the Master was affecting the population as a whole.

As if on cue- and coincidence is a human invention to explain what they can't make sense of- there was an alert from the laptop, announcing a new live feed from Mr Saxon himself, on all television channels. Had Martha's tapping somehow alerted him to her presence, or was he just going to make this broadcast right after the murder? It didn't really matter right now, did it?

"Our lord and Master is speaking to his kingdom." she said coldly, as she turned on the television. Let's see what he has to say for himself.

x x x


	6. The Toclafane

x x x

**Chapter 6: The Toclafane**

x x x

"Our lord and Master is speaking to his kingdom." she said coldly, as she turned on the television. Let's see what he has to say for himself.

"Britain, Britain, Britain." the Master- or Harold Saxon, whatever you wanted to call him, she had long ago stopped bothering to count how many aliases he had used- greeted them.

Was it only her, or did the expression on his face right there seem to be asking to be punched? Not that she would do something like that, but the level of smugness there begged that someone do it. Then again, most politicians were capable of projecting that punch-me look, so he might just be playing the part there.

"What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago this world was so small. And then they came, out of the unknown, falling from the skies. You've seen it happen." and the image switched to show a series of clips that showed the subjects he spoke of as he named them, "Big Ben, destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men. The Christmas star that came to kill." and back to the Master, "Time and time again, and the government told you nothing. Well not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose here, today, is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain... I have been contacted. A message, for humanity, from beyond the stars."

The image switched to a rather fuzzy picture of an unfamiliar metal sphere, with blinking lights on it. Classic image of something outer-space-y, relatively easy for the humans to accept as alien, whether it really was or not. Especially the blinking lights, humans just love blinking lights.

"People of the Earth. We come in peace." it sounded so completely child-like when it spoke, even with that metallic tinge to its voice, "We bring great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection. And all we ask in return is your friendship."

The image cut back to the Master, and this time she might really have punched him if she'd been able to do so, the expression on his face as so completely false, "Aw, sweet." he said, "And this species has identified itself. They're called the Toclafane."

The Doctor rolled her eyes and shook her head. Somehow she wasn't surprised that he'd come up with the dumbest possible name for these creatures- if they even were living things- even then, she'd expected him to pick a name significant to Earth? But she supposed, it was probably a direct challenge to her that he'd done it. As if she wasn't already going to go after him, anyway.

"And tomorrow morning, they will appear." the Master continued, "Not in secret! But to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child. Every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer and... oh, I don't know, every... medical student?"

Another deliberate jab, this time at Martha. She looked at the startled human behind her, to see that Martha was just as shocked as she was. The echo had started again in her mind, this time coming from the television itself. She quickly turned it around and saw what was so blatantly a bomb. Really, if he'd wanted to actually kill them he could have been more subtle about it.

If she had stopped to think about it she would probably have anticipated something like this, he'd been here for a year and a half, finding Martha couldn't have been that difficult. "Get out!" she shouted, and turned to run for the door, only pausing to grab the laptop on her way. The more technology they had the better their chances.

They made it away from the building just as the bomb went off, sending bits of shattered glass and other debris all over the street.

"Everyone alright?" she asked, staring up at the ruined flat. Even the Master wasn't good enough to set a timer that accurately with so many variables. It had to be activated by a keyword. Probably the last words she'd heard him say before they'd fled.

"Fine, yeah... fine." Jack answered.

"Martha?" when Martha didn't answer, she turned to face the human, and saw she had her cell phone out, "What are you doing?"

"He knows about me, what about my family?" Martha answered, dialling a number and putting the phone to her ear.

"We can't go after them." she said pointedly. The Master already knew they were here, why else would he have triggered that bomb? What they needed to do now was to disappear, until they could fight back. Exposing their location to rescue people- however important- without any resources or even the vaguest hint of a plan, was foolish. So suicidal even Jack shouldn't want to try it.

"I'll do what I like!" Martha snapped, before turning her full attention to the phone as it was obviously answered, "Mum! Oh my god, you're there!" a brief pause as her mother must have been speaking, and then, "I'm fine. I'm fine. Mum, has there been anyone asking about me?" another pause, "I can't, not now." ... "Don't be so daft, since when?"

The Doctor exchanged a worried glance with Jack. It was clear that something wasn't right, even though they could only hear half the conversation.

"You'd never get back with him in a million years."

Jack frowned, obviously not getting what that meant, but the Doctor stepped closer to the defensive Martha, holding her hand out, asking for the phone.

"Dad?" Martha asked, shaking her head to tell the Doctor 'no'. "What're you doing there?" But the Doctor gave her a pointed stare, and repeated the 'give me the phone' gesture. Martha reluctantly allowed the Doctor to take the phone.

She knew it was a very poor impersonation, but she picked Jack's accent to mimic rather than one less familiar, "Hey, Mister Jones!" she said brightly. Anyone listening probably heard 'valley-girl' in her voice. She saw Jack stifle laughter, as she continued very quickly so that Mr Jones really didn't have time to get a word in edgeways, "Martha and I have a _lot_ of very important things to do. You know, shopping. She really needs a new outfit!" yes, she saw the irony there, did it on purpose even, "So, y'know, if you wanna come and see her, we'll be at the mall all day. Say goodbye, sweetie."

And she handed the phone back to a startled Martha, with a warning look. Martha took the phone, "Sorry about that, dad. Yeah, I guess I'm going shopping." whether by genuine shock or good acting, she managed to sound very much like she was being dragged there against her will, "But I... gotta go now. Bye." As soon as she hung up the phone, she glared, "What was that?"

"They obviously weren't behaving normally. Under duress, or something of the sort." the Doctor said, having dropped the fake accent, "Better to give whoever was listening a false location on us. There's about- what, five?- malls in this area, it'll take them a while to realise we're not at any of them."

"So we're _not_ going to any shopping centres?" Martha asked, pointedly not mimicking the American-ism.

"That's right." the Doctor said pointedly. "Avoid them all, like they're death traps. Who knows, they might be, now."

"But... what about my parents?"

"If Saxon's people are already there, they're probably relatively safe as long as they think we're not on to them." she shrugged, "Show up in person, your family loses all value as bait."

Martha shuddered at the harsh way that was worded, "And Tish? Leo?" she asked, frowning.

"Call them if you want." the Doctor said, shrugging again, "But remember not to mention me, or where we are, or what we're doing. Or, you know, any useful information at all. And try to keep up." she added, turning and walking down the street. Jack followed her, and Martha frowned before following as well, while dialling another phone number.

"Tish!" she said brightly, but then she stopped talking as her sister apparently started going on about something completely irrelevant, "Tish, have you heard about mom and dad?" she finally managed to interrupt. "Yeah, it is a bit weird. But-"

This time the Doctor actually snatched the phone out of Martha's hand, mid-sentence, "Tish, right?" she asked, in the fake accent.

"Uh, yeah. Who're you?" the girl on the other end of the phone answered.

"Name's Cindy. That's with a C. I'm a friend of Martha's, met at the hospital. Y'see, I've got this very attractive male friend, and Martha refuses to be set up with him. You interested? Like, today?"

Both humans were staring at her, dumbstruck, but she just kept walking as if she was oblivious to their confusion.

"Is he a doctor?" Tish asked. She remembered from the Lazarus incident that Martha's sister had a thing for rich and/or powerful men.

"No, he's not, but I'm sure you'd like him anyway." she answered, grinning. For some reason, it was always amusing when her name was mentioned in relation to something else.

"Hmm, well it can't hurt to try. Sure, I get off for lunch in half an hour." Tish said.

"Ok, give Martha the address, I'll go tell my friend. Ciao, baby." She handed the phone back to Martha, and covered her mouth, actually biting her hand to avoid laughing at her own horrible impersonation.

"You want me to go pick her up, don't you?" Jack asked, smirking. She was sure he'd found her valley-girl act absolutely hilarious, but she was equally sure that he was more interested in what she was up to than in laughing at her methods.

"Yes please." she answered, while Martha took down the address.

"Ok, bye Tish." Martha said, then she hung up the phone before rounding on Jack, "And you so much as look at her funny, I'll kill you." she informed him.

Jack laughed, holding his hands up defensively, "No problem, I'm pretty sure we're just trying to get her out of the line of fire, right?"

"Right." the Doctor answered.

Martha was already dialling another number, now, though. Must be Leo.

"Leo. Hey, where are you?" Martha asked. After a pause to listen to him, she frowned, "Yeah, I saw it." she muttered coldly, "You heard about mum and dad? They said they're getting back together. No, I'm serious! Yeah, I think they need to be left alone. World war three will break out as soon as they've been talking for ten minutes, and we don't wanna be near those two then, do we?"

Jack leaned over and whispered to the Doctor, "I thought world war three didn't start for another half a century?" He had to be joking, she knew world war three wasn't until the late twenty-third century, and considering the fact he's from the fifty-first century, and a Time Agent, he really should know that as well. It took her all of half a second to figure out what he was talking about.

"Yes, and Kobayashi Maru was the name of a real ship." she laughed.

But her good humour didn't last as she turned her attention back to Martha, "Well, go to Boxer's or something, I can't imagine this city's gonna be a good place for you, me or Tish when those two start at it." But then she froze for a few seconds, before hissing angrily, "Leave them alone, Saxon."

The Doctor immediately took the phone off her, "She's right, you know. It's me you want, isn't it?" she asked, in her own accent.

After several seconds, the Master spoke, "Doctor."

"Master."

"Oh, I like it when you use my name." was it her imagination or did he make that sentence sound almost as bad as half the things Captain Jack ever says?

"You chose it. Psychiatrist's field day."

"As you chose yours." the Master retorted, "The one who makes people better. How sanctimonious is that?" He paused for a few seconds, but then added, "Who was that Cindy girl talking to Martha's family, then? Was it you?"

"Some bleach-blond American who recognised Martha in the street." she lied, in a dismissive tone, "She seemed eager to drag Martha away, but I finally got rid of her by offering Jack's phone number."

He laughed at that, it seemed he genuinely found that funny, rather than the sarcastic or cruel sort of laughter he usually used. She wasn't sure if he bought the lie, though. He could find it equally funny still knowing it was a lie, she was sure.

While he was laughing at this, she turned to the other two, pointed to the note Martha had made of where her sister was, and then waved them off, effectively telling them to go do that while she kept the Master talking. Martha looked like she wanted to protest, but Jack nodded obediently, and led her away from the Doctor, out of earshot, before starting to talk to her.

"So... Prime Minister, then?" the Doctor asked, walking away from her two human companions.

"I know. It's good, isn't it?" the Master said brightly.

"What are those creatures?" she asked him, "Because we both know there's no such thing as the Toclafane, that's just a made-up name like the bogeyman."

"Do you remember all those fairy-tales about the Toclafane, when we were kids?" Oh yes, she did remember. They were supposed to be monsters that ate time. Very scary stuff for a young Gallifreyan, but easily outgrown. Or so she had thought, apparently the Master still liked the stories. "Back home. Where is it, Doctor?"

"Gone." she whispered.

"How can Gallifrey be gone?" he snapped, angry at what he clearly perceived to be an impossibility. Even if she was telling the truth, he didn't want to accept it.

"It burned."

"And the Time Lords?" he asked, his voice suddenly quiet. He didn't want to hear it, but couldn't help but ask.

"Dead." she answered, sadly, "And the Daleks... more or less." it took a lot of effort for her to keep the bitterness out of her voice at that last part. The Daleks always managed to survive, it just wasn't fair! After a few seconds, she asked, "What happened to you?"

"The Time Lords only resurrected me because they knew I'd be the perfect warrior for a Time War." he answered. They'd done it before, it didn't surprise her that much. The High Council never were good at dealing with confrontations of that sort, but the Master was, well, vicious. "I was there when the Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform. I saw it. I ran." Probably the best reason- excuse- he's ever had for running away. "I ran so far. Made myself human, so they would never find me." Who was he more afraid of? The Daleks or the other Time Lords? "Because... I was so scared." That last part actually sounded sincere, which really did surprise her. The Master did not like admitting to fear, he never had.

"I know." the Doctor had been terrified during the war, too. If he'd had the choice to run away without risking the Daleks winning the war, he'd have taken it, too.

"All of them?" the Master asked, suddenly snapping out of whatever dark thoughts had held his voice to a whisper, now he was far too cheerful again, "But not you. Which must mean..."

"I was the only one who could end it." she said, finally stopping walking and closing her eyes. The memories were painful, and she was certain it would never get any easier thinking about it. "And I tried, but there was no other way."

"What did it feel like, though?" the Master asked, "Two almighty civilisations burning. Oh, tell me, how did that feel?" and there was that tone again, just like when he'd told her he liked when she used his name. Almost indecent, sadistic glee at what he was asking. She closed her eyes, and tried not to think how much the Master would have loved to have been in his place for that horrific moment, "You must have been like God."

"I've been alone ever since." 'With no one to hear me screaming at the dark, no one to understand. You can't know what that's like, you could sense me from the moment you restored your mind.' But she didn't say that. She felt it, tried to project the emotion, but was fairly certain he wouldn't know what it meant, "But not anymore. Don't you see, all we have left is each other."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" he asked.

She blinked at that, considering it for only a fraction of a second. He was joking, she was certain of it, and for that reason alone she answered, "If you want, sure, why not?" She didn't even mean it as a joke. If it would get him to listen to her, she had no reason not to try. Right now she was willing to try almost anything to get him to stop whatever evil scheme he had in store for the Earth.

That stopped him for a moment. He hesitated, she could tell by the way the silence settled, he was taken aback by her answer. "You're serious!" he said, shocked. He didn't need to ask, he could sense it. She had stopped blocking her mind, stopped trying to hide, soon after Jack and Martha had left.

"Well?" she asked, a slightly teasing tone in her voice, daring him to back out after he was the one who suggested it.

"We'll see. How about tomorrow?" he asked dismissively. After a brief pause, not long enough to allow her to answer, he continued, "Yes, tomorrow morning, eight o'clock. That's one show you do not want to miss, isn't it? If you find me before I find you, you can get a front row seat, how does that sound?"

"And if you find me first?" she asked, smiling faintly. This part was a familiar game, the conditions and threats, making it a challenge at every step. He liked playing games, and it was familiar territory for her too.

"You get to watch from behind bars." he said dismissively.

"Well, either way, I'll see you tomorrow morning, then." she said, feigning a cheerful tone, just for his benefit. She didn't really see it as anything worth being cheerful about, he may think it's a game, but to her it was very serious.

"It's a date!" and he hung up the phone.

x x x

"That's the place, right over there." Martha said, pointing across the street to a nice little cafe.

"And we're right on time." Jack noted, "How do I look?"

"Not like yourself, it should be enough." Martha said, smiling.

Captain Jack had removed the distinctive greatcoat, and otherwise altered his appearance, as best as they could without going anywhere too public to buy new clothes. His hair was done differently, for which Martha profusely apologised and promised to undo as soon as they'd found her sister. He was even wearing glasses- the Doctor's 'brainy-specs'- having muttered 'If it worked for Clark Kent...' when he'd first put them on.

Now, he walked across the street, as if he had every right to be there, and into the small cafe. Easy to spot who you're meant to meet when they're the only person in the shop. "Tisha Jones?" he asked, approaching the very pretty girl. Just in case anyone less friendly was watching, he held back the usual confident flirting tone, and instead deliberately tried to sound uncertain, like any twenty-first-century human set up on a blind date should. It was not an easy illusion for him to try to create, but he liked to think he was a good enough actor to pull it off.

Tish stood up smiling hesitantly, "You would be Cindy's friend, right?"

"That's right." Jack said, nodding, "Here, let's get this to go, I've got a better location in mind."

Tish wrapped up her food, and Jack ordered a coffee to go, and they left, "So what sort of thing does a beautiful woman like you do for a living, then?" he asked in that falsely casual tone of normal people trying to make small-talk. Usually he would already be kissing a girl- or whatever he'd been set up with- by this point, but he needed to _not_ look like himself. They walked down the street, blending in nicely with the crowd.

"Oh, I work for Mr Saxon. Personal assistant." Tish said, sounding very happy about this fact.

Startled, Jack almost missed a step when heard this, "Really? You'd think that's the sort of thing your sister would tell everyone about." he noted, twisting his tone of surprise to imply a mild recrimination towards Martha- not an accurate impression, as he was sure Tish just hadn't told Martha yet- and he barely managed to hold the horror out of his voice.

"Well, this is only my first day. And honestly, I've been a P.A. before, it's not that great, really. I mean, my exact instructions, this morning, were to 'stand there and look gorgeous'."

"Well if your job is to look pretty, you must be brilliant at it." he steered her across the street, still trying to look calm, "So what's Mr Saxon really like, then?"

"Oh, well he's got a really strange sense of humour. This morning, I was told to keep people out of his office. When he heard me telling someone that no one could see him, he shouted out, 'not nobody, not nohow'!" and she laughed again at the memory.

"He liked the Wizard of Oz, then?" Jack asked, snorting, "'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain', that's my favourite part."

Tish gave him a funny look, but Jack just shrugged.

"Sounds like an... interesting person to work for." he said, before ducking into the side-street Martha was hiding in, pulling Tish along with him, and quickly saying, "Martha, I think we should run now."

"Why?" she asked, as Jack ran down the side-street, with a tight hold on Tish's hand. The poor girl was completely confused, now, and she started trying to pull her hand away from him. Martha ran after them, carrying Jack's coat, and having a bit of trouble keeping up.

"Your sister got a new job this morning, guess who she's working for." he called back, messing up his hair- he was sure he would look better with bed-hair than whatever Martha had done to it. The glasses were gone, now, too.

"Oh no!" Martha whined, "Saxon?"

"Yeah? Is that bad?" Tish asked, but then she glanced at Jack, and did a double-take before adding, "What's going on? And just what are you doing here?"

"We're rescuing you!" Martha snapped back.

"From what? Boredom? A quiet life?"

"Saxon, actually." Jack said, as he paused scanning the area they found themselves in. It was uninhabited, with no security cameras- he had very deliberately been checking for those- so they stopped to catch their breath, "He is a very dangerous person, and you want to get as far away from him as possible."

"Which will be difficult, since he _is_ running the country now." the Doctor's voice called as she trotted down the street towards them, "Nice work, by the way, Captain." she said, before switched her accent, "Heya, Tish!"

Tish stared, "What's going on?"

"Long story short, Harold Saxon has somehow been hypnotising the entire country into believing he's a nice guy. Trust me, he is not." the Doctor said simply, having- hopefully for the final time- lost the American accent. It really didn't suit her. "Now, we need to make ourselves scarce for a while, and figure out a plan." she turned to Tish, "And you need to disappear. Go into hiding. If he finds you, you will become leverage to be used against Martha."

"What's Martha done?" Tish asked, shooting her sister a worried look.

"She's friends with me, that's her only crime." the Doctor answered bluntly.

Tish frowned, "What's so bad about Mr Saxon? What's going to happen?"

"The usual, I imagine." Jack said, shrugging, "World domination."

"For a start." the Doctor added, "He believes in aliens because he is one. And I'm the only person he's afraid of, because I'm... I'm the same as him. Except, you know, with a conscience. So he'll stop at nothing to hurt, and/or capture me."

"So he doesn't want you dead?" Tish asked. Very observant, even Jack didn't pick up on that one, though he might have if he'd thought about it for a while.

"Why would he?" she asked, smirking faintly, "We're the last of our species."

And Jack spent all of two seconds fighting it, before he gave in to the urge to laugh, falling over against a nearby wall as he did so.

x x x

They had found an abandoned warehouse in which to hide. It was cold, but it served their purpose. Tish had insisted on sticking around, since she did not know how to disappear properly, she'd said it herself, "Knowing me, I'd probably walk right into Mr Saxon within five minutes."

This woman, who called herself the Doctor, had gone on for a while about who Harold Saxon really was. Some guy who called himself the Master.

Martha had asked, "And what is he to you? Like a colleague or something?"

"Friend, at first." the Doctor answered simply.

"I thought you were gonna say he was your secret brother, or something." Martha muttered.

"Or _something_." Jack said with emphasis that implied they could have been lovers.

The Doctor had stared at them both for a second, one of those calculating sort of stares that implies she's really thinking about how to answer that, before saying bluntly, "You've been watching too much T.V."

After that, Tish had tried to listen, but all she got from this 'Doctor' woman's story was that the 'Master' was insane and dangerous. When it got into alien worlds and weird initiation rituals involving eight-year-olds- which put her in mind of the Jedi in the newer Star Wars movies- she had tuned out, instead paying attention to the news on the laptop, which they had charitably given to her to monitor, since she couldn't do anything else useful around here.

She was happy to see that her parents were only mentioned as 'possible witnesses' in this mess. Tish herself was now considered a 'hostage', she found this amusing. Why would her own sister hold her hostage? Silly, really. But it seemed to be the publicly acceptable theory.

Just as Tish was seriously considering trying to find a comfortable way to take a nap- she really was tired, especially after the running- a beeping drew everyone's attention. It was coming from Jack, specifically the wristband he wore.

"Encrypted channel with files attached." he told them. Well, mostly he told the Doctor, Tish and Martha just happened to overhear, really. "Don't recognise it."

"Put it through to the laptop." the Doctor instructed. Tish obediently turned the laptop round so the others could see it, and found the right port for the interface, for them. Not that anyone with half a brain couldn't have done the same thing, but it helped to feel useful.

But then Jack hesitated before connecting the device to the laptop, "Um, since we're telling stories, there's something I haven't told you." As if he was actually nervous- something Tish had quickly learned had been an act when she'd first met him, he was supremely self-confident and seemed virtually fearless, so it really was out of place now- he hooked up the device, and information came up on the screen.

"You work for Torchwood?" the Doctor asked, looking disgusted. Not surprised, you'd expect surprise if you found out your friend was doing something you were that disgusted by, but she wasn't. It just kept getting weirder, the longer she hung around with her sister's new friends.

"I swear to you, it's different. It's changed." Jack said defensively, "There's only half a dozen of us now."

"Everything Torchwood did, and you're part of it?" the Doctor snapped, showing anger for the first time since Tish had met her.

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf." Jack answered, still defensive, "I rebuilt it, I changed it. And when I did that, I did it for you. In your honour."

The few seconds that passed, while the Doctor stared at him coldly, seemed to last for an hour or so. Tish decided right there and then that she did _not_ want to do anything to make this woman angry. _Ever_. And yet, Jack did not back down or look away, until the Doctor finally turned and pressed the button to play the message.

Tish didn't see her face, but she recognised the female voice that spoke from the laptop. "If I haven't returned to my desk by twenty-two-hundred, this file will be e-mailed to Torchwood. Which means if you're watching this, then I'm..." the hesitation was enough to say the word 'dead' so loudly that she didn't need to speak it.

Tish scowled at this, not liking the mess she'd found herself in one bit. It was one thing running and hiding, but knowing that what she was hiding from had killed someone she'd been talking to just this morning. The woman she had so idly been joking about to Jack before she had to run. Was this her fault? Maybe if she'd kept that woman out of Mr Saxon's office more determinedly? She looked away from the computer, even if she couldn't see the face it still made her feel sick just to think about it.

"Anyway, the Saxon files are attached." the woman continued. She hadn't even caught her name, when they'd spoke earlier. She felt she should know the woman's name, at least. "But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started, when Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."

"What's the Archangel network?" the Doctor asked.

"I've got Archangel, everyone's got it, look." Martha said, showing the Doctor her cell phone, as if the horror of someone being murdered by the maniac they were running from was just an everyday occurrence, and it could be accepted and dealt with so easily. Tish cringed, wondering how it was possible not to be so horrified as she was at this entire situation.

"It's the mobile phone network." Jack continued, "Look, it's gone worldwide. Fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel."

"It's in the phones!" The Doctor said, as she took out a phone, and did something to it with a blue penlight that made a funny noise. Tish supposed it was some alien thing, but really didn't care to know. She was still in shock. "I told you he was a hypnotist." a few more seconds, and the phone started emitting a beeping sound. Tish had never heard it before, but somehow it seemed familiar. She looked up, finally, frowning as she tried to figure out why she recognised the sound. "There it is." the Doctor said, triumphantly. "That rhythm, it's everywhere."

"What is it, mind control?" Martha asked.

"No, he'd never get away with that, people would notice." the Doctor said, shaking her head, "This is subtler, just a suggestion. 'Vote Saxon. Trust me, believe in me'." she said, as if she was somehow actually translating the beeping, rather than just explaining it. "A worldwide illusion in the collective subconscious. Oh, but that's how he's been hiding from me! I should have known he was here long ago, but this. It made me see it, like everyone else. Just what he wanted us to see. All because of that sound." she finished, staring at the phone in mild awe, as if she thought Mr Saxon was a genius. A compliment to the enemy.

"Any way you can stop it?" Jack asked, hopefully.

"Not from here." the Doctor said, shaking her head, but smiling all the same, "But now we know how he's doing it."

"We can fight back!" Martha cheered.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor answered brightly.

While the Doctor, with Martha's help, disassembled the laptop and Martha's cell phone and set about doing God knows what with the parts, Jack sat next to Tish, "You ok?"

"I'm scared." she said, frowning.

"I know it's a lot to take in." Jack said, in a reassuring tone, "But the Doctor deals with things like this all the time. She's saved countless worlds from all sorts of catastrophes."

"I keep thinking about that woman who sent the message." Tish said quietly, replaying the scene in her mind of that brief conversation, trying to think of a way it could have gone differently, "When I told you about someone trying to get in to see Mr Saxon earlier. It was her. He let her in, in the end. I can't help wondering. If I'd stopped her..."

"It's not your fault." Jack said, putting an arm around her shoulders. It definitely helped, made her feel safe, even if it couldn't last. "You didn't know."

"He always seemed so nice. I guess that was the hypnosis thing the Doctor mentioned?"

"Yeah. Even I liked him, before we found out." Jack said. His tone seemed to imply something inappropriate about exactly what way he meant the word 'liked'.

Tish giggled nervously, but then sobered up pretty fast as the thought returned to her of just how serious this situation was, "What do I do? I don't know anything about hiding from- well, at all really. Never was that good at hide-and-seek as a kid."

Jack smiled weakly, "It's simple, really. Don't use anything they can track, so ditch the phone as soon as you leave here, for a start. Stay away from other people, can never tell who'll rat you out. Learn your way around wherever you end up staying for more than a day, know the lay of the land so you don't run into a dead-end if someone finds you. And most importantly, if you do get caught, play innocent and clueless, do it right, and they'll think you were just lost."

"How do you know all this?" Tish asked, slightly awed.

"I've had a lot of practice avoiding enemies. Not just with the Doctor, either." he said, grinning.

"Jack, give me your TARDIS key!" the Doctor shouted over. After several seconds, he managed to free the key she had asked for from a collection of other keys, and threw it over to her.

"What's she up to?" Tish asked quietly.

"No idea. But I'm sure it'll be good." Jack replied cheerfully, as if it was perfectly normal for the Doctor to do inexplicable things that turned out to be brilliant.

Tish watched for a few seconds, as the Doctor worked with the keys and some computer chips, "It's like watching MacGyver." she muttered.

"Except easier on the eyes." Jack joked, causing Tish to giggle again.

"I heard that!" the Doctor noted, just loud enough for them to hear.

x x x


	7. Perception Filters

x x x

**Chapter 7: Perception Filters**

x x x

"Three TARDIS keys, three pieces of the TARDIS, all with low-level perception properties, because- well, in theory at least- the TARDIS is designed to blend in." she saw the amused looks on Jack and Martha's faces, but didn't react to them. She knew they thought it was very funny that she'd even suggest the TARDIS could blend in. "Add the code for the Archangel network, and we can access that signal to boost the perception properties of the key, and..."

She picked up her own key, and held it up. "Martha, you can see me, right?" Martha nodded. She put the key around her neck, "How about now?" Martha blinked, trying to focus on her, but it didn't work. When Martha's eyes wandered off to one side, the Doctor waved and said, "Over here." Martha shook her head, and tried again, still unable to look right at her.

"It's like... I know you're there, but I don't wanna know." Martha finally said, giving up on trying to focus on her.

The Doctor took off the key, "That's it, exactly." she said, smiling brightly at Martha, "It just shifts your perception a bit. Doesn't make us invisible, just..." she thought for a second, trying to recall the word from those books he had discussed with Martha once, "Unremarkable."

Martha grinned. She got the reference. Even Tish and Jack seemed to get it, as Tish smiled as well, albeit weakly, and Jack nodded to show he understood.

She handed the other two keys to Jack and Martha, then turned to Tish, "It's probably safer for you if you stay here. It's abandoned, no one's likely to search it any time soon."

"What about Martha?" Tish asked.

"She'll be with me." the Doctor said simply, as if this was a perfectly reasonable answer that assured Martha's safety. Not an entirely accurate suggestion, she had to admit. "And we've only got three keys, anyway."

Tish frowned, "Is there anything I can do from here?" she asked, suddenly sounding quite determined to help. For having been terrified- and apparently a bit traumatised by the death of that woman who had sent them the Archangel data- she had recovered pretty quickly and clearly wanted to do something useful.

"Here, this is the number for Jack's communicator. Check the news on your phone, and text us if something important happens." the Doctor said, quickly writing down the number and giving it to Tish, "And whenever you contact us, call yourself Cindy, try to make the message look casual or innocent. Mobile phone signals are very easy to intercept."

Tish nodded, clearly knowing it was a cheap attempt to get her to stay here and think she was being useful, but also willing to accept it for the safety of not trying to charge into the battle.

"When did I ever give you my number?" Jack asked, confused.

"You didn't." the Doctor answered innocently.

x x x

So, Jack, Martha and the Doctor left Tish in the abandoned warehouse, hopefully safe for now, and made their way, unnoticed, out into the main street. It was still early morning, before sunrise, and they had been walking for some time, now. The other two simply followed the Doctor, trusted her to know where they were going.

Good thing, then, that she did know. She could sense the Master's presence. He wasn't trying to hide from her. He wanted her to find him. Although she was fairly certain that he had minions out there looking for her, too. He probably didn't care whether she found him first or not, that was only a minor part of the game.

But now she led the way onto an airfield, sensing that this was where he was. Why, she didn't know. She didn't care, it was about six in the morning, and as he had so blatantly stated, she did not want to miss the eight o'clock deadline for whatever he was up to.

When she saw him, she beckoned for the other two to follow her, as she skirted around the group of soldiers and guards lurking around, until they were at a point where he had his back directly to them.

"So what's the plan?" Jack asked, his voice low, so as not to break the illusion that concealed them.

"These perception filters have two purposes." she answered, just as quietly, "If we can get one around his neck, it will cancel out the illusion he has created. They'll see him for what he really is, then he can be stopped."

"You don't want to kill him, do you?" Jack asked, "Because I was just thinking how easy it might be to use these perception filters to sneak up behind him and break his neck."

"Now that sounds like Torchwood." she retorted coldly, "Just go with my plan." She smiled rather suddenly, but the coldness was still there as she added, "Jack, I know it sounds bad, but if I fail, you should try next. No offence, but your life is more expendable than Martha's, what with death never sticking for you."

"Thanks." he muttered, somehow not sounding sulky or sarcastic at all. He seemed to interpret his inability to stay dead as a gift, rather than the curse she saw it as.

"Stay here for now." and with that, she stepped forward slowly.

The President of the United States of America was approaching the Master and his entourage, holding everyone's attention. She idly wondered why he was here, but then decided it wasn't worth wasting her time on.

The Master jokingly saluted the President. Even if she hadn't known who he was, she could still tell that he held absolutely no respect for the man, as he spoke, "Mr President, sir."

"Mr Saxon, the British army will stand down. From now on UNIT has control of this operation." the President ordered. Oh, that's just what you don't want to do, give orders to the Master. He never takes well to them.

"You make it sound like an invasion." the Master joked. She noticed the irony in his voice, and shivered slightly at that thought. She wouldn't put it past these... these things that the Master had called 'Toclafane' to be an invasion force of some sort.

"The First Contact Policy was decided by the Security Council in nineteen-sixty-eight and you've just gone and ignored it!" the President snapped. Even the Doctor didn't like his attitude. Typical of the worst sentient beings- and not just humans, even the Time Lords had been guilty of producing such offensive specimens- sticking to old rules when dealing with new issues. And being downright rude while doing so, as well.

She carefully skirted around the close-ranked guards behind the Master, and stepped up behind him, as he answered the President, "Well, you know what it's like. New job, all that paperwork. I think it's down the back of the settee."

The Doctor paused, half-way through taking off the perception filter- as long as she held it she could still choose to remain unnoticed- staring in surprise at this completely out-of-place joke. Utterly ludicrous, and even the ignorant human would recognise it, she was sure.

"I did have a quick look." the Master continued, seemingly unaware of her presence, "I found a pen, a sweet-"

She shook her head, and took the perception filter off properly, ready to follow through on her plan and expose him as the fraud he was. Almost ironic to do so when he's being about as offensive as possible while still maintaining the illusion.

"-a bus ticket, and-" he turned around rather suddenly, and put an arm around the Doctor's waist, pulling her two steps forward and breaking the illusion that concealed her, "-have you met my girlfriend?" The President seemed utterly oblivious to the fact she hadn't been standing there a moment ago. Probably part of the Master's hypnosis, the humans only saw what he wanted them to see.

But how had he known she was there? Maybe her concentration had slipped when he'd started being an irreverent prat to the President? The joke about losing the paperwork, he may as well have said the dog ate it, and she'd had to fight not to laugh at it. That must have been it.

As soon as she was visible to everyone, his hand moved to grip her wrist, and the command of '_drop it_' rang clearly in her mind. She dropped the perception filter on the ground, and tried to smile at the President. Considering she had taken an instant dislike to him, and was even less fond of her current situation, the smile was blatantly forced.

"Mr Saxon, I'm not sure what your game is, but there are provisions at the U.N. to have you removed from office unless you are very very careful. Is that understood?"

The Master decided to antagonise the President even further, it seemed. No one would behave in such a manner without deliberately wanting to annoy _someone_, and it didn't actually bother the Doctor so much, because she actually thought it was funny when he mimed zipping his lips like a child might.

"Are you taking this seriously?" the President demanded, angrily.

The Master only nodded. He still had a good grip on her wrist, but she didn't feel any inclination to try to fight him right now.

The President shook his head, clearly exasperated with the Master's immature behaviour, "To business." he declared, trying to bring the conversation back in the general direction of sanity, "We've accessed your files on these... Toclafane. But first contact cannot take place on any sovereign soil. To that purpose, Aircraft Carrier Valiant is en route. The rendezvous will take place there, at eight AM."

Funny, that sounded like the President had just agreed with everything the Master wanted, except that he wanted to take control himself, and be the great hero who welcomes the aliens, instead of letting the Brits get away with it. The Master, however, decided to be awkward, and mumbled incoherently, keeping his mouth shut. She looked away, unsure whether she was trying to resist the urge to laugh or insult her fellow Time Lord's mental state. Maybe both. Yes, probably both.

The President understandably took offence at the Master's behaviour, "You're trying my patience, sir!" he snapped.

The Master pointedly mimed un-zipping his lips. Now she was definitely fighting the urge to laugh, but at least she was winning that fight. She may disagree with the Master on almost any moral argument in existence, but she did like his sense of humour... most of the time.

"So America is completely in charge?" the Master asked simply.

"Since Britain elected an ass, yes!" the President snapped, "I'll see you on board the Valiant." and he turned to walk away.

"It still will be televised, though?" the Master asked, causing the President to reluctantly look back at him again, "Won't it? Because I promised. And the whole world is watching."

"Since it's too late to pull out, the world _will_ be watching." the President said irritably, turning to actually face the Master as he added pointedly, "Me!" Then he walked away and actually succeeded in leaving this time.

Once he was out of earshot, the Master turned to the Doctor and smiled, "I was wondering if you would make it."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Well, that's good to hear." he said with far too much morbid irony in his tone for her liking. He bent down, and picked up the perception filter she had dropped, "And I wonder what you were going to do with this?" he added, standing up and holding it up where she could see it.

She stared blankly, "Sneak past your guards." she answered, as if it was obvious, and the only possible use for such a thing.

"Hmm, I'm sure." he said, pocketing the perception filter, and showing clearly that he did not believe that was all there was to it. But then very suddenly his attitude changed again, smiling cheerfully, he took her arm as if this really was a date, "We have a private plane ready and waiting. We should reach the Valiant within the hour."

"I like your coat." she noted, in a too innocent tone. It very strongly resembled the cape the Doctor had worn in his own third life.

"I thought you might." he answered.

x x x

"What just happened?" Martha asked, staring dumbstruck as the Master led the Doctor away from them.

"If I told you my theory, you'd want to wash out your brain with disinfectant." Jack answered, also staring after the two Time Lords.

Martha shuddered in disgust at that. "So what do we do now?" she asked pointedly, hoping that further conversation would get rid of the mental picture Jack had just given her.

"Aircraft Carrier Valiant." Jack said, frowning at his wrist device, "It's a UNIT ship, at fifty-eight-point-two north, ten-point-oh-two east."

"How do we get on board?" Martha asked, frowning.

"You're not going to like it." Jack said, holding out his hand, with the wrist-device exposed for her to grab on to.

She rolled her eyes, "This thing's worse than a bad hangover." she muttered, before putting her hand on the wrist device. Jack activated the thing, and they were gone.

She didn't really see or feel anything during the step between locations, but as soon as she landed. Worse than a hangover was being really polite about it.

"God, that thing is rough!" she complained, as she landed painfully on her backside. Although the pain in her head managed to outweigh that minor indignity by far.

"I've had worse nights." Jack retorted, a bit too cheerfully. Once they had both recovered, he added, "Welcome to the Valiant."

Just then, the wrist-device beeped, and Jack checked it. He frowned, then closed it and tried to look innocent. "What was that?" Martha demanded.

"Bad news." Jack said, still scowling, "I'm sorry."

"What?" she asked, fearfully, "What is it?"

"Your parents have been arrested. Tish just saw it on the news." he held out the wrist-device so she could see the text message.

hey jack! cindy. did u hear mr & mrs jones got arrested for 'aiding and abetting' that strange girl with u? ditch her and go out with me

At least Tish was good at playing the part, if someone had intercepted that it would look relatively innocent. "But they didn't-!" Martha started, horrified.

"Does it really matter to him if they did or not?" Jack retorted, but then he stopped himself from continuing, and shook his head, "I'm sorry, Martha. But the only way out of this is to find and stop the Master."

x x x

"I don't understand you, sometimes." the Doctor finally spoke, as they flew up towards the Valiant. The private jet was very nice indeed, plush seats, free drinks, and- as the word 'private' suggests- they had whole place to themselves. Under any other circumstances she would very much enjoy being here, even with the Master. "Well, most of the time, really. I mean, you have a very nice position of power already, plenty of publicly funded luxury." she gestured around the interior of the plane itself, "Why bother going any further?" It wasn't that she felt this way about power herself, never had done, but she understood the Master's desire for it well enough to try to reason with him on his own level.

"One measly little country, not even the most powerful one on this pathetic planet." the Master said, dismissively.

"So you want the Earth?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Earth had never interested the Master much, except for the times he had come here just to cause problems for the Doctor.

He grinned at her, "The world is not enough." he quoted brightly, then added, "I want the universe."

"Why?"

"Because I believe I can take it." he answered simply, "And as the last of the greatest race of all time, we deserve it."

"'We'?"

"Well, mostly me." he said, smirking. He put an arm around her shoulders and leaned closer to whisper, as if he needed to lower his voice when there was absolutely no one else there, "But whether in chains or a crown, you'll be there with me."

"Charming." she hissed, trying to throw his arm off her, but he didn't let her, "You know, it's not too late to stop this."

"Oh, but I promised!" he whined. Who did he promise? Those metal things he insisted on naming after a fairy-tale? Or the mindless television-viewing public? "Besides, the timer's already counting. And admit it, you want to see the President look like a fool as much as I do."

"He doesn't need help with that." she noted, certain that anything the Master might do to that man would be far worse than he deserved.

Still, her snide remark caused the Master to laugh, "You're probably right." But then he seemed to trail off, staring out the window as if at another world entirely.

"What is it?" she asked, when he had been staring for several minutes, giving off an air of intense concentration.

"The drumming." he said, returning his attention to here and now, but not looking at her, "Can't you hear it?" he shot her the briefest glance, just enough for him to see as she shook her head in answer, then continued, "I thought it would stop, but it never does. It never ever stops, inside my head. The constant drumming."

As he spoke, his hand tapped out that beat she had heard before, his fingernails striking the plastic part of the armrest of his seat to make it audible, and it echoed in the back of her mind as well. Four half-beats, exactly the same sound that was now being projected through Archangel to make people trust and believe in him. The rhythm that she had witnessed unwitting humans tapping in her presence, triggered by his hypnotic suggestion.

"What if I could help make it stop?" she asked quietly. So quietly she barely heard it over the echo in her mind. Although, that wasn't saying much, it was probably perfectly audible to anyone who wasn't affected by whatever was causing her to hear this sound.

"It's everywhere." either he hadn't heard, or he didn't want to. It could be either.

"Please let me help you." she said, more clearly.

He turned to look right at her, a gaze so deadly cold it scared her, but then he smiled. Snapping out of his darker thoughts, and pretending they had never existed, he pointed out the window, "Look, we're here."

She looked out, and saw the Aircraft Carrier Valiant coming into view, floating in the clouds. "That's a bit ahead of its time, isn't it?" she asked, suddenly very curious about this ship. But she wouldn't be forgetting the drums in a hurry, either.

"Mmhm, I helped design it. Well, I say 'helped', that's just what they think. It's all mine, really. Every detail." the Master noted smugly, "High-power turbine engines. Gravity deference field generators, salvaged from Torchwood at Canary Wharf. Powered by solar cells, with a nuclear reactor for backup. Phasic shields, and six-point laser beam weapon, again from Torchwood. Those people really knew how to steal good stuff."

The Doctor turned to look at him as the Valiant left her line of sight. They were coming in to land now, "You know, it looks kind of familiar."

"Tell that to your friend, the Captain." he said, smirking, "He might recognise the visual inspiration from somewhere."

She rolled her eyes, and actually hit her forehead with the heel of her hand, understanding the rather sadistic joke that most humans who weren't around in the nineteen-fifties wouldn't get, "You know that's not very funny, right?"

"Oh, I think it's hilarious." he said cheerfully, as the plane finally stopped moving. They had landed. He stood, and offered her his hand, in a very formal way. She stared at the hand for a second, and almost decided to refuse the offer, but what good would that do her? Whereas, playing along and being nice- well, relatively- to him, might get her some leeway to allow for an escape, or better still an opportunity to stop his evil scheme. So she took his hand, and allowed him to lead her off the plane, and onto the Valiant.

x x x


	8. The Valiant

x x x

**Chapter 8: The Valiant**

x x x

A very short walk down one of those retractable walkways commonly used in airports (and in later centuries, space-stations), and down five stories in the lift, and he led her out onto the main bridge and conference room of the ship.

And the first thing he did was approach the President, who was ranting about wanting everything to be done in his letterhead instead of the U.N.'s, "Anything I can do? I could make the tea?" he suggested, "Or isn't that American enough? I don't know, I could make grits. What are grits, anyway?"

"Nobody likes grits." the Doctor put in pointedly, "Now, coffee. That's much better, and very American."

The President glared at both of them, but while the Master failed to look innocent, the fact the glare didn't last when he looked at the Doctor suggested that her innocent smile was more effective. "If you could both just sit."

The Master shrugged and wandered over to the nearest seats, "You know, he actually thinks this is his show, now." he noted brightly, albeit quietly enough that only the Doctor heard him, as she took her seat.

"You planned this from the beginning?" she asked.

"I knew the First Contact rules." the Master explained, shrugging, "I didn't expect him to get quite so upset over it, though. He must be in the one or two percent of the population that's immune to Archangel. It took a direct compulsion to make him ignore it when you appeared out of thin air."

"Two minutes, everyone." the President announced smugly.

"You know." the Doctor started, "It's still not too late to stop-"

"Say that one more time. I dare you." the Master hissed coldly, a threat clear in his voice. She glared at him, but didn't rise to the bait.

The President continued to speak, "According to the treaty, all armed personnel are requested to leave the flight deck immediately, thank you."

"Here, eat something." the Master muttered, offering her a bag of jelly-babies. It seemed clear that he hoped this might shut her up for a minute or so. Good luck with that one.

She eyed the sweets as if they were poisoned, but then shrugged and took one. Though she waited for him to eat one himself, before accepting that they were probably safe. Besides, the odds of him really trying to poison her were slim. Now, spiking food or drink with other undesirable chemicals, she would not put past him.

"Broadcasting at seven fifty-eight. With the arrival timed for eight-hundred hours exactly." the President said, loving taking the boring donkey-work away from the Master far too much. "And good luck to all of us."

She had just been about to eat the jelly-baby she had taken, when she paused to mutter, "Oh-eight-hundred, eight o'clock, or eight AM. But he had to pick the only technically incorrect way to say it." and then she finally ate the piece candy the Master had given her. There aren't many dangerous chemicals that she wouldn't have recognised immediately, and this did taste like a perfectly ordinary jelly-baby, so she wasn't too worried.

The Master smirked, "It could be worse. They could have elected a complete illiterate."

"Too true, you may be an ass, but at least you're an intelligent ass." she noted brightly, earning an amused half-glare from him. "A dangerous megalomaniacal ass, but still-"

"You can stop now." he growled.

"So, is it still too soon for that nice little chat about all your plans?" she asked, feigning a sweet tone.

"Yes. Four minutes and twelve seconds too soon." the Master answered bluntly. She scowled, wondering what was so special about two minutes past eight, and entirely certain that she did not want to have to find out.

And exactly twelve seconds after he said that, the President started to speak. This event was now live, broadcasting world-wide. "My fellow Americans, patriots, people of the world." Oh yes, two for America, then a vague generalisation for the rest of the planet. He certainly was not going to make any international friends that way. "I stand before you today as ambassador for humanity." Humanity would be in trouble, even without the Master's help, in that case. Yeah, she really didn't like this guy very much. "A role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much-"

Now the Master thought something was very funny with that sentence. The Doctor could literally feel the amusement in almost tangible waves, as he smiled a bit too smugly. She frowned, wondering what the joke was. When he saw this, his smile widened into a truly cruel grin. Maybe she didn't want to know the joke.

"-but what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew." she could now literally hear The Master's laughter in her mind, almost distracting her from the President. She wasn't entirely sure which was worse, the smug-factor of the speech, or the obvious malice of the Master's amusement. But the President continued to embarrass himself worldwide, completely oblivious to any danger, "For as long as man has looked to the stars, he has wondered what mysteries they hold." Sexist, too.

"I can see them." the Master whispered in her ear. She turned her head sharply to look at him, but didn't dare search the room for her friends. "It's adorable, really." he continued, allowing her to ignore the President's speech in favour of listening to him. Yes, she preferred the Master's gloating to the President's inane drivel, that really said bad things about this particular human's public speaking ability, "They came all this way, just to try to die for you. And here you are, fraternising with the enemy."

"One important word I caught there; 'try'." she noted, still staring at him.

He just smirked cruelly at her, "Wait and see." and the Master returned his attention to the President, with the sort of gleeful anticipation one expects of a small human child counting down the seconds to Christmas day so they can start shredding the wrapping paper.

And so she had little choice but to listen the President's words, as she quickly glanced around the room and saw Jack and Martha at the back, watching her. When she met Jack's eyes, she nodded slightly, and he slowly started to walk towards her.

"And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. I give you the Toclafane."

The Doctor looked up sharply when the name was mentioned, to see four of the metal spheres she had only seen before on the television broadcast. They appeared in flashes of blue light, just behind the President. He turned to face them, either very brave or very stupid. Both, she guessed, leaning more towards the stupid side.

"My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and Designated Representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the Planet Earth and its associated Moon." And you could literally hear the capital letters, when he pronounced them. Were they all really necessary?

"You're not the Master." one of these... things said. The childlike tone was somehow very disconcerting. Completely wrong.

"We like the Mr Master." another one said, this time with a female voice. It was possible to tell which was talking only by the way the lights flashed slightly brighter as they spoke.

"We don't like you." a third one added.

"I can be master if you so wish." the President offered, obviously confused by these creatures' behaviour.

"Idiot." the Doctor muttered under her breath.

"I will accept mastery over you if that is God's will." the President continued.

"Man is stupid." one of the things said. A fraction of a second later, she felt Jack's hand touch her shoulder, but she didn't look up at him. Tried to show no sign of noticing him at all. She wasn't sure why she was trying to help them maintain the illusion, the Master had already said he could see them. Still, it was their only plan, at the moment.

"Who let religion into politics?" the Doctor muttered, leaning forward so she was whispering it to the Master, although she was sure that Jack caught her words too. The Master snorted, but suppressed his laughter well enough that only she heard it.

"Master is our friend."

"Where's my Master?" the apparently female one of these creatures asked, "Pretty please?"

The Doctor caught sight of Jack, out of the corner of her eye, as he was just about to get the perception filter over the Master's head, but the Master moved away from him, pulling his chair forward a step- wheeled office chairs were now officially to blame for whatever terrible thing happened next- and waving cheerfully as he called out, "Oh, all right, then. It's me!" before standing up and bounding forward. "Ta-da!" he laughed, enjoying this far too much, "Sorry! I just have this effect, people get obsessed. Is it the smile? Is it the aftershave? Is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know, it's crazy!"

"You're crazy." the Doctor muttered under her breath, glaring at the Master. Then she looked up at Jack, frowning. He was looking right back at her, the look on his face clearly asking the question, 'should I try again?' but she wasn't sure it was going to do any good. Only a few seconds left until whatever evil plan the Master had in store was revealed anyway, she was sure that had been their last chance. But when he saw her indecision, he made the choice for her, and he had chosen to try anyway. What had Captain Jack Harkness to lose? His life? Ha!

"Saxon, what are you talking about?" the President demanded, indignant about his spotlight being stolen.

"I'm taking control. Uncle Sam." the Master said, turning to face the President, his back now to Jack and the Doctor, "Starting with you." he glanced briefly at one of the metal spheres, and ordered simply, "Kill him."

It obeyed eagerly, sprouting vicious-looking spikes, and swooping down to hover next to the Master. It fire a laser at the President, disintegrating the man on the spot.

Jack took the distraction as an opportunity to rush forward. At this point, it really wouldn't surprise the Doctor if Jack strangled the Master with that piece of string. But the metallic fiend that had just killed the President seemed to notice Jack, even as the Master turned to face him, and it took the initiative of swooping into the space between Jack and the Master, so the spikes hit Jack in the chest as it continued to fly forward, away from its Master.

The spikes retracted, and Jack fell to the ground, dead.

The Master laughed with glee as the other assorted delegates began to panic, "Guards!" he shouted, and several men drew guns, in spite of all armed personnel having been dismissed earlier. "Nobody move!"

"This is a stick up, all your base are belong to us." the Doctor joked, just loud enough to be heard over the shouting, and no more.

"Oh, do shut up." the Master growled at her.

"You invited me." she retorted. She had yet to get out of her seat, and looked quite comfortable there, almost relaxed. She had even picked up the discarded bag of jelly-babies, and ate one after making that last remark, as if to emphasise the illusion that she was at ease here. A completely false impression, she was quite terrified, not just for the people here but also for the Earth as a whole. However, when one of the little fiends swooped closer to her, she dropped the bag back onto the table and held her hands up in a gesture of surrender, mimicking the Master's act of zipping her lips.

"You still think you can stop me, Doctor?" the Master asked, approaching her in as ominous a manner as is possible. Which, let's face it, probably frightened various forms of excrement out of most of the humans present.

The Doctor raised both eyebrows in an expression of confusion, and said nothing. She barely held back the smile when the Master growled in irritation and impatience. So, she unzipped her lips, "Yes, let's all sit down and have a nice little chat, while I tell you all the plans I have to stop you, so you can defend against them? I don't think." Now she let herself smile.

"I've heard more engaging conversation from parakeets." the Master muttered, walking away from her, disappointed.

"It's annoying, isn't it?" the Doctor asked, suggesting that his words were the annoying thing, rather than the act of throwing them back at him, but he ignored her now.

"Now then!" he continued, turning to the camera, suddenly maniacally cheerful once more, "Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully-" but he was interrupted, as something grabbed his ankle.

"Don't you just love those old zombie movies?" Jack asked, grinning ferally, as he pulled the Master down to the floor. He no longer had the perception filter in his hands, and by the gleam in his eyes he really would try to kill the Master this time. Sure enough, he ignored the previously laid out plan, and put his hands around the Master's throat.

Unfortunately for Jack, the Master had a weapon- quite possibly literally- up his sleeve, and Jack collapsed, dead once more. "Oh, get off me, you freak." the Master grumbled, kicking the Captain's corpse away and picking himself up. He held up the weapon he had used to kill Jack, showing it off to the Doctor, far too smug, "Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the best part is he'd not dead for long. I get to kill him again!" At that moment, he noticed that Martha had moved several feet closer, "You like the look of that, Miss Jones? Want to join him? No?" he asked brightly, but then his tone turned threatening in an instant as he added, "Then stay right there." pointing the laser screwdriver at her. Martha was smart enough to do as she was told, not moving any closer.

Meanwhile, the Doctor stood up, slowly- deliberately not making any sudden moves, so the demented flying metal basketballs wouldn't see her as a threat- and walked towards where the Master stood. "Master. Please listen to me."

She could see the smirk on his face as she said his name, and wasn't entirely sure what to think of it. '_Egotistical prat_' was he first thought to cross her mind. Unfortunately that was closely followed by a few ideas that must have come from spending too much time in the company of Captain Jack.

"You don't have to do this." she continued, "Just stop for one minute, and listen."

The Master seemed to consider it for a moment, then looked to the camera, "Do excuse me, little bit of personal business. Back in a minute." Once the camera was off, he turned to face her again, and made an impatient hand-gesture for her to say whatever she had to say and make it quick.

"You told me about the drums. What if I could help find a way to make them stop?" she asked. She knew trying to talk him out of world domination on moral principle wasn't going to work, so now she was trying bribery.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." he said dismissively, though she saw the cheerful facade waver slightly, as if he genuinely wondered if she could help, but wasn't about to stop now just for the distant possibility.

She quickly argued, knowing if he passed on this offer there was nothing else she had as a backup plan, "Give me a chance, I'm sure there has to be some way-"

"Oh, how to shut her up?" he demanded to the room as a whole.

She glanced in the direction of Captain Jack, grateful to see that he was still dead, therefore had not heard that question. The obvious thing the Captain would have thought of to shut anyone up was a kiss.

The Master saw what she had looked at, however, and laughed, "Oh, excellent idea!" he taunted, leaning on the handrail to jump down from where he had been standing, so he was now right in front of her. She immediately took a step back, but this only made him laugh, as if he thought she was foolish to even think he would actually kiss her. "Guard her." he ordered the floating fiends.

Two of them swooped down, and circled her, blades out in a threatening manner. She glared at them coldly, but knew better than to try anything now.

"Now, Miss Martha Jones." he cheered, turning to the only remaining threat in the room, "I've got a surprise, just for you." and with a wave of his hand, the lift door opened and two guards pushed her parents into the room. Mrs Jones was crying, and both were trying in vain to resist the guards who escorted them.

Martha turned to stare in horror. Not shock, she must have known, somehow. "Mum." she whispered.

"I'm sorry." Mrs Jones said, trying to stop her tears.

Martha frowned, and turned back to glare at the Master, "Why did you bring them into this?" she demanded, angrily.

"Oh, you can thank me later." he said, laughing as he stepped closer to her. He pulled the perception filter off her neck, snapping the string as he did so. He then whispered something to her that the Doctor couldn't hear. Martha frowned, as if she'd expected whatever he'd said, but it still wasn't a good thing. "Go on then." he finished, audibly.

Martha backed away from him, and then slowly turned and walked over to stand next to her mother, where a guard immediately handcuffed her.

"Is it time?" one of the two fiends that didn't guard the Doctor asked, suddenly, as it buzzed closer to the Master. "Is it ready?"

"Is the machine singing?" the female one asked.

The Master checked his watch, though why he did was completely beyond the Doctor. Time Lords rarely needed to check external sources to know exactly what time it is. The Doctor could tell what time it was, without needing to check, even before the Master spoke.

"Two minutes past." He said, before waving to the camera, and it was switched back on as he returned to the top of the stairs so he could look down on the world instead of facing the camera directly. "So, earthlings!" he called cheerfully, "Basically, um... end of the world!" He held up the laser screwdriver, and shouted, "Here... come... the drums!"

The Doctor was aware of music playing, but not much more than that, because all she could really hear was a screaming in her mind. She fell to her knees in agony, trying to block it out. She'd never felt anything like it before, but she knew it was the TARDIS crying out in pain. She knew it was close, but that made it hurt all the more. Very close, somewhere on the Valiant, even.

It took her some time to close off her mind and free herself from the pain. Finally, she looked up at the Master, who seemed altogether far too cheerful. "Come and look." he said, beckoning her. Reluctantly, she stood again, and followed him to the window. He put an arm around her shoulders when she reached him, and asked, "Isn't it beautiful?" There were millions of those metal fiends falling from the sky, from a rift overhead. An invasion.

"It's hideous." she hissed, easily shaking his arm off, and stepping back, away from the sight of them. "How?" she asked, staring in horror at the rift in the sky.

"Oh, if I told you, that would make it too easy." the Master gloated.

She backed away further, shaking her head, "What are they?" she asked quietly.

"I'm sure you'll learn that eventually." he answered, smiling, "But first..." he turned back to the window and when he spoke his voice echoed as if over some communication system she didn't see, "Remove one tenth of the population!"

"No!" she shouted, but she only made it one step closer to him before one of the little fiends got in her way, blades whirring threateningly around it. She stopped, glaring at it.

The Master then turned around to look at her again, but quite suddenly pointed the laser screwdriver past the Doctor. He fired, the beam passed less than a foot from her shoulder and she turned to see that Captain Jack had been about to activate his wrist device, but the laser hit him before he could do so.

Voices began echoing through the room, from all over the world. Calls for help. The hostages were totally petrified with horror, but the Master walked over to Jack, as if this sort of event was perfectly normal for him. He removed the wrist device, and examined it for a moment, then pocketed it, along with the last perception filter.

"Show's over, people." the Master jeered, "Guards, take them away." and the guards proceeded to take away the prisoners, except for Jack and the Doctor.

Just as the Master turned to look at the corpse on the floor, Jack woke up again, and took a second to realise what had happened before glaring up at the Master. He didn't dare do more than glaring, however, because that laser screwdriver was aimed at him, and he knew damned well that the Master would enjoy being given an excuse to kill him again far too much.

"Stay down." the Master ordered, and Jack just continued to glare, "Good boy." and he then turned to look at the metallic fiends again, "Guard him." Three of them swooped down to circle around Jack, daring him to try anything. Since he was unarmed, he seemed to know better.

The Master then proceeded to ignore Jack, in favour of talking to the Doctor, "Now, take off that jacket." he ordered her.

Jack obviously fought back the urge to laugh, but the Doctor ignored him. She did as ordered, knowing why the Master really gave the order, in spite of Jack's worst thoughts. Pockets were a dangerous thing to allow her to have, and both Time Lords knew that well. Her sonic screwdriver was in this jacket, for a start.

When she let it fall to the ground, the Master then ordered, "And step back." she did so, and he picked up the jacket from the ground. It was instantly clear that the pockets were far deeper than they should have been, as the Master reached into one, but pulled his hand back pretty suddenly, "Ow! Damnit!" he yelled, and the Doctor grinned brightly as she saw the mousetrap on his hand. She knew she'd kept that thing for a reason. He threw the mousetrap across the room, and tried the other pocket, pulling items out and naming them as he dropped them onto the table. "Let's see. Psychic paper. Lovely sentiments, by the way."

She should hope so, it was set to insult anyone she didn't like if they ever read it without her touch to influence the paper, the idea came from those same books he had discussed with Martha so long ago.

"Shakespeare's autograph, jelly-babies, five different coloured pens- one of which is pink?- notepad, telescope, stethoscope, glasses, 3D glasses, shot glasses, magnifying glass, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, bananas, a yo-yo, a ball of string, a toy mouse, catnip- why do you have catnip?" she actually opened her mouth to answer that question, it was a perfectly reasonable answer too, but he continued before she could speak, "No, I don't think I want to know. Paperclips, playing cards- marked playing cards, even- a water pistol, a rubber duck? No, three rubber ducks. Ah ha!" he finally found the sonic screwdriver, and held it up in triumph, "Knew it had to be somewhere."

"And I could have been much more imaginative about where." the Doctor noted brightly, causing Jack to snort with very badly suppressed laughter.

The Master stared at her for a second, clearly trying to tell if what she had just said was intended the way the human took it, or not. He then shook his head, and chose not to ask. Instead, he changed the subject. "I must say, I like this new appearance, Doctor."

"Well, you never could resist a pretty face, could you?" she asked, smiling coldly. He'd always had a liking for attractive women, far more picky than the Doctor had ever been about aesthetics.

"Funny, I don't think it's your face he's looking at." Jack pointed out. It wasn't true, but it was intended purely to annoy the Master, so accuracy was really quite irrelevant. The Master didn't even look at him, just aimed the laser screwdriver in his direction and fired. Jack collapsed, dead, once again.

"You know." the Doctor said, trying to cover up the irritation at her friend's unceremonious execution for the third time in the last seven minutes, "It's better to ignore him when he says things like that. Retaliating only makes him more determined to believe that what he's suggesting is true."

"But why waste an excuse to kill him?" the Master asked.

"Do you _want_ to encourage him?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, almost amused now. She had been trying to encourage Jack a moment ago, purely because she knew it would annoy the Master. It annoyed her, too, but it became less of a problem when it was being used against an enemy.

The Master stared at her for several seconds, then shook his head, "Valid point. I'll kill him for something else, next time."

She rolled her eyes, but decided not to argue. Not yet, anyway. And less than a second later, Jack was breathing again. "Wow, talk about denial." Jack muttered, sitting up slowly.

The Master scowled at the immortal, "I wonder what would happen if I slit his throat just enough to stop him talking, but not enough to be fatal? Would it heal when he died again?"

Jack pulled a face, "Been there, done that. Yes, it does heal."

"Well if the first sentence is true, the second is utterly unnecessary." the Master growled, before killing Jack once more.

"As was that." the Doctor said coldly, referring to Jack's death.

"But it was fun!" the Master pointed out, a bit too cheerfully.

The Master turned to one of the few remaining guards, and noted cheerfully, "Get rid of this mess-" he waved dismissively at Jack, "-and ensure that all the prisoners are searched for potential weapons." at this moment, Jack woke up again, and the Master smiled maliciously, "And to make sure Handsome Jack doesn't enjoy it too much, the Toclafane can search him." Two of them swooped down next to him, showing their blades again, "Thoroughly."

x x x

The obviously-brainwashed guards had dragged a cursing and swearing Captain Jack away, and now only the Doctor and the Master remained on the bridge of the Valiant. Well, she wasn't counting the evil metal basketballs, which she refused to think of as that which the Master had named them.

How immature was it to name a monster you've created after a character from a nursery-rhyme? That's like... no, wait, Rose did that, didn't she? Who's afraid of the big bad wolf, indeed. She decided to stop thinking about that now. Preferably before he saw that she was trying not to laugh, all of a sudden.

The Master turned to face her, just as she fought back that thought, and he smiled at her. "I have a present for you." he said, brightly. If she didn't know better, the tone of voice would imply that he expected she should like said present. Somehow, she doubted it could be anything good.

He took a step closer to her, so he was now only a few feet in front of her, and pulled a simple black piece of some flexible material out of a pocket. It was very fine, looking like the sort of decorative choker goth chicks wear all the time, but the shining metal fixture on the end was vaguely familiar looking. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.

She stared at the object for several seconds, before asking very quietly, "How did you get that?"

"You wouldn't believe how much trouble it was. I had to bribe a lot of people. Kill more. All for you."

"I'm flattered." the Doctor hissed coldly. She was tempted to take a step back, but she was quite certain that if she did anything the Master didn't like, he would find some innocent victim to torture in front of her. Probably Martha. Instead she frowned at the 'present', "Please tell me that isn't...?"

"An Iridian neural disruptor collar. Very rare, but apparently Torchwood London had some interesting connections."

She shook her head, really wanting to run away from this thing, which he now held up to her as if it was a valuable gift. "Please, no." she whispered.

"Oh, I'm hurt." he said, poorly feigning the emotion of which he spoke, "You should at least try it on, before rejecting such a thoughtful gift." And before she could argue further, he stepped forward again, and put the object around her neck, fastening it behind her. She felt a sharp pain where the metal part of the collar stabbed into the back of her neck, touching her spine.

Then she collapsed. She was still conscious, aware that the Master had caught her as she fell, but everything felt so empty. So cold, she was shaking. She couldn't feel anything, the turn of the Earth, the songs of the stars, the ripples and waves in time itself, all gone. She couldn't even sense the Master's presense, as she had since he had activated the Chameleon Arch. There was nothing. Absolute oblivion. Only the dull echo of her own heartbeats... and his, as he held her.

Slowly, she stopped shaking. Then, with some difficulty, she found her feet again, and pushed away from the Master, forcefully. She opened her eyes, and everything she saw seemed so... pale. So empty. Her mind was trapped, she couldn't reach out, and it hurt. A dull ache in the sides of her head. She imagined this disorientation and lack of perception was similar to what a human might feel like if they had suddenly had their eyes ripped out, and had to adjust to blindness.

The Master was watching her with fascination, "How does it feel?" he asked.

"Like hell." she said weakly. She meant it quite literally.

He laughed, "Well you should get used to it." he said, smiling cruelly, "You can't take it off, and I won't."

She stared blankly at a wall, off to one side. She had guessed she would suffer as his prisoner, but... this wasn't what she'd expected. A prison cell, insults and probably torture- more likely of the psychological variety- on a daily basis. Not this. This complete emptiness. Even after the Time War, when the Doctor had still been recoiling from the loss of his homeworld, there had still been other life out there, he had felt it, it had kept him going. But now, she felt nothing at all.

The Master put one finger gently under her chin and tilted her head up so she was forced to face him, and looked into her eyes, a calculating look. It was so much harder for her to read emotions with this collar, but she knew him well enough to know that he was very carefully considering what he was about to say. "There were other options. Easier ways, with which I could have kept you restrained, weakened. Some of them even more cruel. I chose this for a reason."

"And that reason would be?" Even her own voice sounded distant. As if, even though she chose the words, it felt like someone else was speaking.

"For me to know, and you to find out." he said, his tone teasing, now.

She rolled her eyes, "You never did grow up, did you?" she demanded. He really was acting like a spoiled child who'd just been given a planet as a toy to play with, rather than the evil megalomaniac she knew he was.

"I know how to act like an adult. I just don't like to." he said, grinning.

She smirked darkly at this, "I preferred you when you were dark and brooding. Less demented."

"Well I prefer you just like this. Far better than any of your previous incarnations."

"It's the breast, isn't it?" she asked bluntly.

"That wasn't what I meant." the Master said, pulling a face that almost managed to look like disgust. Except she couldn't tell for sure when she couldn't sense his emotions, "I think you've spent far too long in the company of humans."

"Well, Jack _is_ a bad influence." she said dismissively.

"All the worse for the fact he won't stay dead. There's always necrophilia to consider."

She choked, totally taken by surprise by that remark, "That's disgusting!"

"So are a lot of things that humans do."

"And so is mass-murder." she added coldly.

"Only if I get blood on my clothes." he said, shrugging dismissively.

She folded her arms defensively, glaring at him.

"Aww, don't give me the kicked puppy look!" he whined, "It makes me want to go find a real puppy to kick! And where do you get a puppy at twenty-thousand feet?"

"Have you listened to yourself talking recently?" she asked, "And I don't mean the sound of your own voice, I mean the words."

"Cute. Really." he said coldly, "I don't think I'm going to give you the same rules as Miss Martha. I like arguing with you too much. But if you disobey me, she will be the one to suffer, I'm sure you knew that one was coming, hmm?" she nodded, still glaring at him, "And every time you speak to me, I expect you to use my name."

She smiled a bit too brightly at that, and immediately answered, "If you say so, Koschei." That had been his alias at the Academy. It wasn't his real name, but then, neither was 'the Master'. Both were names he chose himself. She knew it would annoy him, but she felt the strong need to retaliate for the collar, and words were her only remaining weapons.

Before she even realised what had hit her, her cheek was burning and her head had snapped to the side. He had slapped her! No, judging by the way his arm was raised, he had backhanded her across the face. Slightly less offensive than slapping. Only slightly. At any rate, it was still less painful that getting slapped by Jackie Tyler.

"Oh, I'm sorry." she said too-sweetly, "Did you mean-?" but he easily recognised the fact that she was about to use his _real_ name, and he struck her once more.

"You know perfectly well what I meant!" he snarled, "You will call me Master!"

x x x


	9. World Domination

**Author's Note**: For those who didn't see the episode recently enough, it's I Can't Decide by Scissor Sisters (except I used the entire song here).

x x x

**Chapter 9: World Domination**

x x x

For a prisoner, the Doctor was relatively well-treated. The metal fiends had escorted her, with many idle threats- she knew the Master didn't want them to harm her, if he wanted harm to come to her he would definitely want to do it himself- to a room that must have originally been intended for visiting dignitaries. She liked it, but would never admit as much. She was certain the other prisoners were nowhere near so lucky.

She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep, a combination of the fact she did not trust her captor, and the painful silence caused by the collar. Time Lords didn't need sleep as much as humans, but she was tired enough that it shouldn't have been a problem if she had tried. Instead she focused inward and let time fly around her. Sooner than she expected- blame the collar for her inability to keep track of how much time had passed- it was dawn. The sunlight took her by surprise, but somehow the fact that the Master had sent one of those little metal demons to bring her back to the bridge of the Valiant did not.

The orders the fiend gave her were unusual, however. She was to wear something "More civilised. Master's words." it had said in a far too sweet female voice. She found clothing in the room, which she assumed had been put there just for her. Unfortunately, she had no choice but to wear a skirt. She would get revenge for that indignity if she had to wait for the end of the universe to come around again in its own time.

After asking the fiend if her outfit was acceptable, and being told, "The Master will like it." she was escorted to the bridge of the ship.

Naturally, he was waiting for her. No one else was present, the room was almost calm, but even without her higher senses she could tell that the Master himself was not in any way relaxed. He was maniacally cheerful.

"Good morning, Doctor." he said brightly, before glancing at the fiend and ordering it to, "Stay out of the way, but don't leave." he turned back to the Doctor, "Your personal jailor." he added, gesturing to the fiend in question.

"Oh, thank you, Master. It's just what I've always wanted." she said, starting off in a too-cheerful sarcastic tone, but then dropping her voice to show her true loathing for the situation as she added, "A shiny talking bowling ball."

The little fiend in question showed its blades, and whirled around on the spot for a second, before retracting them again. Clearly it did not like that remark.

"Does it have a name?" the Doctor asked coldly.

"Hmm, I'm not sure." the Master pondered this for a moment, then looked up at the fiend, "Name?" he asked it.

"We are one, names are so small." it answered.

"I'm going to call it Dot." the Doctor said simply, still glaring at the creature. Dot Matrix was the name of a- in theory female- robot from an Earth movie she'd seen once. It seemed fitting. Especially given the name of the movie.

Either the Master had never seen the movie in question, or chose to ignore what she had just said, instead asking, "How does it feel? The silence?"

"Maddening." she answered, before turning the question back on him, "What about the drums, Master. How do they feel?" She had chosen to accept his instruction to use his name, but she was careful never to let her tone show any emotion when she said it.

He laughed, "I could show you." he suggested, stepping closer to her, and reaching a hand out to the side of her face. He was offering to make a telepathic connection with her.

Much as she desperately longed for any relief from the terrible nothingness the collar enforced around her mind, she shook her head, and asked quietly, "Please don't."

He hesitated, "Why not?"

"I'd prefer to hear it in your own words." she said simply. In truth- though she had not technically lied- she didn't want to sense whatever madness had possessed her old friend. Seeing the results of this madness hurt enough.

"There's one little problem there." he noted, too cheerfully, "There aren't words."

"What have you done with Jack and Martha?" she suddenly asked, changing the subject.

"They'll be fine, as long as you behave yourself." he answered vaguely, "Well, Miss Martha and her parents will be. I enjoy killing the freak far too much to rely on you making trouble for an excuse."

"And what do you want from me?" she continued.

"Your obedience." he said simply, "I could take over or destroy the universe, but without you there to watch, it wouldn't be nearly as fun."

"Touching. It almost sounds like you care about me, Master." she said coldly, folding her arms defensively. Almost was the important word in that sentence.

"Well you were right about one thing. All we have left of our world is each other."

She snorted, derisively, "Oh, that you agree with. What about my little suggestion to _leave this planet alone?_"

He shrugged, clearly not caring, "Sit." he gestured to where she had sat the previous day. Before the world ended.

"Explain it to me." she asked, once she had sat down. She was staring up at him, now, completely unafraid. Angry, but not afraid. "The drums."

"I already told you, there are no words to accurately describe it." he said dismissively.

"When did it start?" she asked.

He shook his head, "I used to be able to ignore it when I wanted to." he said quietly, before very suddenly looking right at her and all-but shouting, "But you had to go and ruin that, didn't you? Without Gallifrey, without the other Time Lords ever-present, however much I hated them, it's all I can hear!"

"Let me help you, then." she offered, "Just... stop this, and I can help."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" he asked, laughing. Venomous and hysterical at the same time. "No, it's long past that, Doctor."

She frowned, thinking for only a moment before making a decision. What he wanted now and what he might want if he returned to sanity may not necessarily be the same thing. In fact, the odds of any truely sane being wanting this sort of hell, let alone to be responsible for it, were next to zero. "I still want to help." she said softly, "Even if you won't stop."

He smiled, a cold and cruel smile, "Do you know what I want to do with this world?" he asked her.

"I can make an educated guess." she said warily.

"This is only the beginning." he taunted, with true malice, "A stepping stone. When I'm finished with the Earth, all your precious human pets will be destroyed, and it will become the centre of my new empire as I rain fire on the entire universe!"

The Doctor closed her eyes for a moment, horrified at the idea of wiping out humanity like this, but she forced that thought back, and spoke calmly when she looked at him once more, "And even if you won't stop, I still want to try to help you deal with the drums." she stared into those hateful eyes, "Not for the Earth. For you, Master."

"You still care?" he asked bitterly, obviously not believing her.

"Of course." she answered, as if it should have been obvious, and he was being a fool for not realising it.

They had always been very close friends at the Academy, it was only after they graduated that they drifted apart. The Doctor had a life, a family. The Master left Gallifrey the second he was able to acquire a TARDIS, and he had been alone for a long time. Time enough to believe those who cared for him had forgotten or lost interest. The Doctor certainly hadn't been the only one shocked and disappointed by the Master's choice to disappear.

The Doctor had spent several uncharacteristically patient decades trying to get a licence to fly a TARDIS himself, before giving up on the legal course of action, and just stealing one. The next time he had met the Master, it was as an enemy, and she still didn't know how to describe how much that had hurt.

Now, however, he once again refused to accept an offer of help. He had always believed that he shouldn't need help from anyone, especially not from his long-time nemesis. The only one who ever managed to thwart his evil schemes and still tried to be his friend at the same time. And she was doing it again.

When he continued not looking at her, she decided to change the subject. His attention span appeared to be far shorter in this incarnation, and he was uncomfortable with the current topic anyway. "How did you bring them here? What did you do to the TARDIS?"

And the Master's face lit up with unholy glee at the thought of that particular evil scheme. "Ah, now there's something I'm very proud of." he noted brightly, "I turned your precious TARDIS into a paradox machine." She cringed at that thought, that was such a horrific thing to do to a machine that literally breathed the Time Vortex, to manipulate it into causing such a vicious scar on time itself. No wonder the TARDIS had been in pain.

"Why did you need to make a paradox to bring them here?" she asked.

"Figure that one out for yourself." he said, grinning more maniacally, in anticipation of her reaction. It had to be bad. But so many great things came from the Earth and any one of them may be destroyed by this attack. Or a connection to other races he planned to conquer later, even. They could even be related to the Daleks, for all the Doctor knew.

"I need more clues." she said, frowning at that last thought. It was a most unpleasant one, but not in any way provable from the limited information he had given her.

He just continued to grin, that infuriating look of triumph, "No. You don't."

x x x

The following week had been uneventful. In fact, the Doctor had not been allowed to leave her room. She had spent the time checking for surveillance devices, and found only two. Far too few for the Master's usual paranoia, she was sure she had missed at least another eight. She wouldn't be surprised if there were microphones hidden somewhere in here, too.

It wasn't that she was shy, she just didn't like being spied on. In fact she didn't exactly believe in modesty, considering clothing more a statement of the wearer's personality than a necessity (what, exactly, a certain coat said about the Doctor's sixth incarnation, it was probably best not to consider).

And then there was Dot, who insisted on hovering around her room, to keep an eye on her. Did these things have eyes? She couldn't see anything that might pass for eyes. Did she dare get closer to the little fiend? She generally tried to keep her distance.

But now she was bored.

Sitting on the bed, trying to fight the disruptor collar, and failing miserably, she decided to leave that pointless exercise for the day. "Dot?"

No answer.

"Hey, flying metal basketball!"

Nothing.

She rolled her eyes, "Toclafane?"

It spun around, and swooped down towards her, coming to a stop hovering right in front of her face. If it unsheathed those blades so close, they would strike her. She backed up a little bit, and was grateful when the little fiend didn't follow her. "What does the pretty girl want?"

She blinked, "Pretty?"

"Pretty-pretty, with so much death in her eyes."

The Doctor closed her eyes, and turned her face away from the creature, wondering how it could sense such things, and not at all pleased to hear about it, either. "Where do you come from?" she asked warily.

"We came out of the dark. Black and endless night. Flying, fleeing from death."

"But where?" and at that moment the thought of the paradox machine returned to her mind, so she added, "When?"

"There was no space left, no time. We had to slice and burn and run." its voice became shrill as it continued, as if it was genuinely terrified of what it was talking about, "Run and run and run from the dark!"

"You said you were one? What are you?"

"We are the Toclafane, our Master gave us such a sweet name."

"He named you after a monster of children's nightmares." the Doctor said coldly, finally looking at the fiend again, and glaring.

It showed its blades, and spun around for an instant, before retracting them again. She'd swear it should be smirking smugly at her.

"Such big teeth you have." she muttered darkly, not in the slightest amused by her own joke. But then she quickly changed her tactic, "Why do you serve the Master?"

"He saved us. Rescued us from the darkness! From the never-ending night!"

"Very altruistic of him." she muttered coldly, "Does he control you, or do you act of your own free will?"

"What is free will?" it asked, the child-like voice sounded genuinely confused.

She shook her head, and frowned, deciding not to continue on _that_ line of questioning. "You said before, slice and burn. What did you fight?"

"No fighting, just cutting."

"Execution?"

"New life, better life."

"What were you before?"

"We are forever. A hundred trillion years we will live, and then go back to live again!"

And finally it clicked. She leaned back, supported now by her arms outstretched behind her, stunned as it suddenly made terrible sense. "He could only go to here and now, or the end of the universe. You're..." she looked away once more, not wanting to accept it. It took a great deal of effort to force back the threatening tears at the very idea, even if she knew she could still be wrong. "You used to be human?" she asked in a whisper.

A few seconds passed, during which she heard a whirring from the creature, which she guessed meant it was considering her question, before it finally spoke, "Human?" another few seconds passed, and it sounded truly gleeful, as if it had discovered a long lost happy memory, "Yes! We were weak, but then we cut and we sliced and we built. We made ourselves better!"

She frowned, hating to be right this time. It was the most obvious answer, in retrospect, given the clues the Master had left her with. But it was the worst possible answer, she hadn't even considered or imagined- or wanted to imagine?- it before. She still didn't want it to be true.

"If you used to be human. Why kill them?" she asked quietly.

"Because it's fun!"

Now she couldn't fight the tears, and allowed herself to collapse onto the bed, turning onto her side so she could hide her face, "Get away from me." she hissed. It was an order, and if this little monster didn't do as she commanded, it would regret it. The fiend seemed to sense as much, because it did back off, to hover in a corner. Still watching her.

x x x

Another week passed, before the Master summoned her once more. It had given her enough time to recover her composure, after the revelation of the Toclafane. She idly wondered why he hadn't immediately swooped down on her the second she learned the truth, and tormented her with her newfound knowledge.

"I really need to find minions capable of dealing with administrative work." the Master declared as she entered the main bridge of the Valiant, escorted by Dot. He was sitting at the desk in the middle of the room, and there was paperwork scattered all over the table. Apparently whatever he had in mind for the Earth required a lot more effort than she'd thought at first, "If I see one more bit of paperwork, I'm going to kill whoever tries to give it to me."

The Doctor bit her lip to prevent herself from saying anything too insulting, "Bad day, Master?" she asked, innocently, instead.

"Bad week." he replied, throwing something electronic at a wall- looked like a calculator- shattering it, "That felt good, though." he noted, staring at the damage he had just done.

Normally, that sort of behaviour could have made her laugh. Right now, she didn't feel like it at all. "So why did you summon me, Master?"

"I finally watched the surveillance cameras." he said, shrugging. He wasn't even bothering to dance around the subject. It really must have been a bad week for him.

She watched him, for a few seconds, trying to figure out what he was up to. Even if he was in a bad mood and just wanted someone to torment, she knew him well enough to know he was still up to _something_. "Why did you do that to them?"

He laughed, cold and cruel, not genuinely amused at all, "They did it to themselves! All I did was take advantage of their lack of purpose. I brought them back from the edge of the abyss and gave them back their world."

The Doctor glanced at Dot, then back to the Master, "Somehow I doubt you have to lie for their benefit, anymore, Master."

"Oh, that's true." the Master said, nodding, "I could tell you I completely dominated their minds. It wouldn't be a lie. But they had no will to resist, they _wanted_ me to control them." he looked to the little fiend next to her, and added, "Isn't that right?"

"Yes, Master." Dot declared, "We were so lost, freezing in the dark! You saved us, and we are forever yours, my Master!"

You're honestly telling me that this-" she indicated Dot, "-was their own choice?" she asked, sceptically.

Very suddenly, the Master stood up, and stalked over to her, stopping right in front of the Doctor. Looming over her as best he could, and his obvious bad mood added to the effect, "You think I'm lying?" he asked simply, "Why should I bother, when the truth will hurt you so much more?"

Every instinct was telling her to step back, away from him, but she stood her ground in spite of it, "Prove it." she hissed.

Before she knew what he was doing- though to be honest, it was the only logical way to respond to her demand, and she wouldn't have resisted if he'd given her the chance- his hand was touching the side of her face, fingertips pressed to her temple, and she felt his presence in her mind. It was such a relief after the weeks of silence, to finally sense something other than her own thoughts, but just as a moment ago, her instinct was to retreat. She resisted that urge, and instead she forced herself to face him as she saw flashes of his memories.

The so-called 'Utopia', desolate and dead just like everywhere else. Finding the last of humanity, starving, freezing, dying. Willing to do anything to survive, and this- _this_- was the answer they came up with. All on their own, he had told the truth. It was impossible to lie telepathically. It was possible to present the truth in a way that implies an inaccurate conclusion- and that had certainly been used to the Doctor's disadvantage in the past- but there was no room for doubt in what he showed her now.

"How do you feel about your precious humans, now, Doctor?" he asked aloud, not breaking the telepathic connection yet. She didn't see why he should maintain this link, but she wasn't about to back away yet, either. It eased the silence that the collar enforced on her mind, even if his twisted thoughts were the only thing she could hear.

But she didn't answer him, he could sense what she was thinking. She was utterly horrified and disgusted by what they had chosen to do, but that was under extreme circumstances, and it didn't account for the entire species. She still cared for the rest of them, even if these 'Toclafane' had chosen to mutilate themselves.

The Master half-laughed, "You really are hopeless, Doctor. Why you feel the need to protect these inferior creatures- who would sooner kill you than accept your help- is beyond me." '_Humanity is disgusting_.' he continued in her mind rather than speaking, '_They pretend to be so moral and good, but underneath every single one of them is the instinct to kill one another, and anything else that they take the slightest dislike to, as well. No other sentient race has so many wars, so much will to maim and murder others, and then turns around and claims to be so bloody self-righteous!_'

The Doctor flinched, but didn't break the connection. Instead she glared at him, and retaliated. '_They have compassion, far more than you would ever understand. That innate need to explore, imagination, they are all so full of life, unlike certain other species who sat in ivory towers until they were besieged_.' There was no need for the level of venom on that last part, but she couldn't stop herself, that was how the Doctor had always perceived the Time Lords, and while she mourned their loss she still thought most of them had been a bunch of dusty old bureaucrats who wasted the powers they were capable of wielding.

'_Curiosity to explore, will to live, imagination to do anything? Really, Doctor, those were the three primary motivations behind their transformation at the end!_'

Something else echoed in her mind as she heard those last words, and her head started to hurt. He was getting angry at her stubbornness, letting his emotions take more control than his intellect, and suddenly all she could hear was the blood pounding through her ears, a distant beat of drums, and a strong sense of impending doom.

She stepped back, stumbling as she did so, and landed most ungracefully on the floor in front of him, clutching her head in pain. When she slowly looked up at the Master, his face showed both satisfaction at her reaction, and a faint hint behind his eyes that she was sure looked like concern, even though she didn't believe him capable of it anymore.

"Do you still think you can silence _that_, Doctor?" he asked coldly.

"Even if the answer were no, it wouldn't stop me trying." she answered, staring up at him with genuine determination in spite of the pain and fear she still felt at the sound he had accidentally let her hear.

His glare softened immediately, "Not today."

x x x

He was doing it on purpose, she was sure. To annoy her, that was as much motivation as he had ever needed, and she didn't doubt it was the reason now. Every time she was in his presence- and now that he had found minions to do the administrative part of ruling the world, that was every day- he would make every effort to make her uncomfortable while still pretending to be polite about it.

Right now, the Doctor was trying to ignore the fact that the Master's arm was around her shoulder as she sat on the couch, making equal effort to ignore whatever he was talking to a minion about. He was giving orders about some very important project. Or at least to him it seemed important.

But his behaviour towards her was becoming very annoying. Every time she was here, he would lean over her shoulder, whisper in her ear, or any other excuse to invade of her personal space. Every touch seemed deliberately calculated to perfect neutrality, and could be easily interpreted as either that of a close platonic friend, or a lover only behaving himself for polite company.

She knew he was trying to make her doubt his intentions, whatever they may be, and for that fact alone she chose to ignore it. Or try to, at least.

While she had been considering this, however, he had dismissed the minion. The fact that he continued to behave himself in spite of the lack of company did nothing to ease her discomfort at his proximity. Even if he had not made- hopefully joking- attempts to flirt with her, she would be wary of him. He was, after all, a sadist even at the best of times.

"What do you think?" he asked her, pulling her slightly closer to him and gesturing to the large T.V. screen, which showed this apparently very important project. He was going to build statues of himself across the Earth. This was the great scheme he had deemed important enough to terrorise that poor minion into nearly wetting himself?

She scanned the screen, split into three parts, showing three different designs. One was a 350 foot tall statue of him looking angry, another was a plan to vandalise Mount Rushmore by adding his own face to it, and the other was to deface the Great Sphinx in a similar manner.

"Compensating for something, Master?" she asked innocently, as she looked at the statistics for the original statue. She smiled as she felt the glare on the side of her face for a second, but he didn't actually say anything, so she shrugged and added, "I think Ra is going to be very displeased with you."

x x x

Another few weeks had passed, and the Doctor found herself alone on the bridge of the Valiant. Well, relatively alone, Dot really didn't count. She had come to the conclusion, about two weeks ago, that this room was completely- and no doubt deliberately- Doctor proof. Nothing she could possibly use as a weapon could be found. May as well throw her in a padded cell, for all the value of this room.

So instead of trying to find a way to escape she used this time to fight the collar itself. She had made a little progress, but not enough to count as useful. She was now aware of faint traces around her, just recognisable to her time sense... which really only meant if she really concentrated she could tell the time without a watch again. Hardly useful for an escape plan, now was it? Well, you never know.

She was sitting on one of those (officially evil) wheeled chairs near the conference desk, leaning back with her eyes closed as she did this. When she heard the Master entered the room she opened one eye to look in his direction. He was grinning gleefully, so something bad must have happened.

"The last of the resistance has been crushed." he said brightly when he saw that she was watching him. As he said it he curled one hand into a fist to emphasis this concept. She sat up, frowning as he continued to tell her about it, "I have finally eliminated the last of those pesky humans that were immune to Archangel, and the public executions of the four resistance leaders will have set the rest of them straight."

She just watched him coldly. She hadn't known who the resistance leaders had been, all she had known was that they had been causing him trouble since the Toclafane had first swarmed down over the Earth. She was sad to hear they were dead, and for all his glee he may as well have used the word 'exterminated' when talking about that two percent immunity.

"This is cause for a celebration!" he said brightly, turning to the large sound-system, which had been installed about six weeks ago. He had a huge selection of songs, most of which had been released in the last decade, but only about seven that he seemed to play ad nauseum. When he pressed the button to start the music she was disappointed to hear number three on his favourites list. He held a hand out to her and cheered, "Come on, Doctor. Dance with me."

She stared coldly at his hand as the first couple of lines of the song ran through. Between the single swear-word of the song, which she had just heard, and her memory of using the word 'dance' as a double-entendre in the presence of Jack Harkness, she had great difficulty maintaining a blank expression as she answered, "I don't dance."

"You do today if you know what's good for you." the Master ordered, seizing her by one wrist and pulling her to her feet. He caught her waist and began to dance, dragging her along as the first chorus began.

She'd swear he was trying to make her dizzy, if it weren't for the fact that he should know perfectly well that Time Lords have a better sense of balance than that. Maybe he thought the disruptor collar would affect that? He kept turning her in the same direction, spinning her around whenever he got the chance, and in spite of it she managed not to miss a step. It wasn't that she couldn't dance, just that she didn't like to.

She refused to look at him when he began to sing along with the last verse, but even the minimal physical contact of holding hands allowed her to sense his emotions in spite of the collar. It let her predict when he changed the direction of the dance, which did help when he decided the last chorus should be done as if he imagined it was a tango.

That actually ended up with her leaning back over his arm, not far from the floor. She stared up at him, slightly stunned by his demented behaviour. While, in all honesty, she should be used to his insanity by now, this was a bit more than she had expected even from him.

"Should I drop you?" he asked with a cruel smirk, which caused her to glance at the floor. It wasn't that far to fall, probably wouldn't even hurt. She wondered why he thought that was worthy of smirking evilly, but he answered her thought almost immediately, "Or kiss you?"

She deliberately let her foot slip, so she fell to the ground quite inelegantly, and effectively answered that question for him too. He laughed as she scrambled to her feet, backing away from him as she did so. He had finally put words to this twisted game he had been playing, and so now she chose to confront him about it, "What do you want from me, Master?"

He chuckled darkly, eyes alight with cruel amusement, as he answered her, "What do you think I want?"

"If I thought I knew, I wouldn't feel the need to ask." she retorted.

He shook his head, taking a step towards her. She didn't back away, "Are you afraid, Doctor?"

"No." it wasn't entirely true. While nothing he would do to her could scare her, she did fear the harm he could cause the rest of the universe, "Although I really didn't appreciate the time you told those former world dictators that I was your concubine." she added coldly. The humans in question had willingly chosen to serve the greater evil, rather than be executed for standing up for their claims on their own little dominions.

He laughed at that, "The look on your face was priceless."

She rolled her eyes, the picture of righteous indignation, but before she could retort the doors hissed open. Four guards entered, dragging a violently struggling Captain Jack with them. Two of them had a firm grip on his arms, his wrists and ankles were chained, and the other two guards had guns pointed at the back if his head.

"Ah, right on time! Makes a nice change." the Master cheered, as the guards threw Jack to the ground at the Master's feet. Now all four of them had their guns out, aimed at the Captain, as he struggled to his hands and knees.

The Doctor slowly backed away, watching with genuine concern. All things considered, Jack didn't look too badly off. Then again, it was highly likely that whatever physical damage had been done to him had healed by his curse when he came back from the last time he was murdered. She wondered how he could endure it and remain sane. Or was he still sane?

"I have something for you, Captain." the Master said brightly.

Jack slowly looked up at the Master, sitting back on his feet to better see his captor, "So you finally took one of my suggestions to heart, then?" he asked, a faint glimmer of his old cocky smile flashing across his face. The Master backhanded him across the face, clearly hoping to wipe that smile off it. If so, he failed, because while he managed to knock Jack over from the force of the blow, the Captain actually laughed now, "Could have just said 'no'." he pointed out.

The Master had turned away, and stalked over to the main display screen. It was significantly smaller than the T.V. in the other conference room, but still large enough to be clearly seen from anywhere in this room. He pressed a few buttons, and an image came up on the screen. Four people, arms chained to a wall, looking for all intents and purposes like they were lined up to be executed.

Most likely the resistance he had spoken of before.

The instant he saw this, Jack tried to stand. One of the guards hit him on the shoulder with the butt of his gun, knocking him back down to his knees. "No!" Jack shouted, staring at the screen with horror.

The Master laughed, and where he produced the box of popcorn from, the Doctor did not know. She hadn't seen it sitting around anywhere, until it was in his hand, "Oh yes, Captain." he cheered, wandering over to perch on the edge of the desk near where the Doctor stood, to watch the show.

The Doctor glared at him, "You are sick, you know that, don't you?"

He just laughed.

"Please, don't do this!" Jack begged, but the Master ignored him, and probably wouldn't have been able to make any coherent response if he had wanted to, with a mouthful of popcorn.

Until half a second later, when he pulled a disgusted face and threw the box away, leaving another mess across the room for someone else to clean up later, "Yeuch, you humans actually eat this stuff?"

But now a voice from the screen drew their attention, "Any last words?"

The man being addressed had a weaselish look to his face, the sort you'd not trust on first sight, at least from human senses. The executioner stood in front of him, gun in hand. A classic pistol, rather than the larger weapons the guards here had trained on Captain Jack right now.

"Please don't do this." Jack repeated, his voice weak now, "Please, Master, let them live."

The Master laughed cruelly at Jack's anguish, "Hmm, let me think. Um... no."

The man who was to be executed first, it seemed, answered the question most unpredictably, "Your fly's open."

The executioner reacted predictably, by looking down. The victim kicked him, hard, in the face, knocking him back, and then began to struggle with his chains. Unfortunately, they were far too secure. The executioner recovered, and immediately- and unceremoniously- retaliated with a bullet between the man's eyes.

"No!" Jack cried out, once more turning to the Master, "Please, stop this!"

The Master ignored him, continuing to watch as the executioner recovered his composure and moved on to the next victim. A pretty little Asian girl, "Last words?"

She glanced at her dead friend, pain showing on her face as she answered, "Is he afraid to be here, himself?" she asked, "Are we that good?"

"You're that irrelevant." a voice called from off-screen, a young male voice, with a very snotty accent. And the executioner fired, killing her as well.

The Doctor looked away, as Jack continued to beg the Master to stop this. But it had already happened. The Master had told her they had been executed, past tense. This was just a recording. Didn't stop the tears from running down her face as she witnessed this atrocity.

"Last words?" she looked up now to see that the executioner stood in front of a dark-haired woman who looked very familiar. The Doctor couldn't place where she had seen her before, though.

"You'll never get away with this!" the woman shouted, "The Master will fall, and all of you will have to answer for your crimes against humanity!"

And with that, she was shot as well.

Jack was actually crying now, "Please, Master. I'll do anything you want, please stop this."

"And what could I possibly want from you, freak?" the Master asked dismissively, watching with amusement as the human suffered.

Jack looked up at him sharply, tears running down his face and eyes wide with fear, but there was determination there as well, "There must be something you could use an unkillable and willing servant for, Master. Please, let him live."

The Master smiled at that, "You hear that, Doctor? Your pet is betraying you."

The Doctor didn't answer, just watched Jack with genuine pity in her eyes. He clearly knew these people- the resistance leaders on Earth- they were most likely his friends in Torchwood. It's only natural to want to do anything to save those you care about, she would never call it betrayal. He must be able to tell that she didn't blame him. She hoped he could tell.

"Last words?" that drew their attention back to the screen. The last of the four victims. He was wearing a suit, admittedly a bit worn out and probably the same suit he'd been wearing when the Master had initially taken over the world, but he still managed to give an air of dignity in spite of it.

Jack started begging again, repeating over and over, "Please no, please don't do this."

"I'm sorry, Jack." the Doctor said softly.

Jack turned on her in an instant, "You can stop him! Please, Doctor, make him stop this!"

"I can't." she whispered, fighting back tears of her own at her friend's pain. She couldn't sense it the way she normally would, literally feeling the waves of anguish as if they were something physical, but she was still acutely aware of his suffering.

"Do you have any last words?" the executioner repeated, drawing attention to the fact that the last victim had yet to speak.

The man looked up at the camera, and smiled, "You know you're making us martyrs? You can't kill hope, and there will always be someone who will stand up for what's right." he closed his eyes, leaning his head back, welcoming death, "This is sooner than I'd wanted, but I'm not afraid."

"Please, not him." Jack begged, unable to look, as the sound of the gunshot rang out through the room, and then he fell to the floor, sobbing.

The Master had been watching Jack, this whole time, and now he spoke in a tone of blatantly false concern that sounded more gloating and mocking, "Aww, I think I broke him."

x x x


	10. The Paradox

x x x

**Chapter 10: The Paradox**

x x x

Martha had gotten the better deal, out of the three of them, in her personal opinion. Jack, she knew, was tortured and killed on a regular basis. She was also pretty sure the Doctor was suffering, on a more psychological level. All Martha had to endure was being given orders like a slave, and having to make sure the Valiant was kept clean and tidy. She'd been through this before, with the Doctor, when he'd used the Chameleon Arch to hide from the Family of Blood. She could tolerate it again, until they could find a new plan of escape.

In general the prisoners were well kept, the Master clearly didn't see them as a threat and therefore felt no need to weaken them... with the exception of Jack and the Doctor. The closest to mistreatment they received was ridicule, and the obvious enslavement. On the rare occasion when one would question him- even for the most ludicrous of orders- they would be physically punished, just a single blow, more humiliating than painful. No one questioned him twice. It could be worse, he could have gone out of his way to acquire a cat-o-nine-tails... or maybe he did but just kept it for Jack? No, that wasn't something to think about too much.

The Master was obsessed with order and neatness, a perfectionist. A disturbingly direct contradiction to his impulsive tendency to cause destruction and chaos. He often did things just so Martha or one of her parents would have work to do.

Today, Martha was re-alphabetising his rather extensive DVD collection in the secondary conference room, not far from the bridge, which he had scattered across the entire floor that morning. Just for her it seemed, so she could have the displeasure of sorting the mess out again. This was the room in which the Master had gleefully installed a giant flatscreen plasma T.V. for watching the most bizarre combinations of movies and shows imaginable. This included, but was most certainly not limited to, South Park (the movie included), Tellytubbies, Family Guy, Digimon, the Back to the Future and Terminator trilogies (which he seemed to think of as comedies), Futurama, and Red Dwarf.

The Doctor seemed to always be in this room, when Martha was ordered to work here. As if the Master wanted to rub it in Martha's face that her hero was completely powerless to save her.

Right now, the Doctor seemed to actually be listening, rather intently, to something the Master was saying. He was leaning over the back of the couch she sat on, whispering in her ear, so Martha had no idea what he was saying.

After several minutes of this, the Doctor said rather bluntly, "Your reasoning disturbs me more than your suggestion... Master." She seemed to have deliberately hesitated before saying the name.

Martha had figured out pretty early on that the Master just loved to hear his own self-appointed title, especially as a direct form of address that implied the speaker's subservience to him. She was sure the Doctor had been threatened just as thoroughly as Martha herself had been, to make her comply with this egotistical little game of his.

He laughed, and danced around to sit next to the Doctor on the couch, before leaning closer and continuing to whisper, so Martha didn't hear, again. Several more minutes passed, and whenever Martha glanced up at the two Time Lords she could see the Doctor cringing away from the Master slightly. An expression of mild disgust warring with genuine interest for control of her face.

"I hope you have a, ah... less primitive option, Master." she said coldly.

This made him laugh again, "Is that thought so offensive to you?"

"Yes." she said flatly. It took a few seconds, and a pointed glare from him, before she realised she was expected to use his name, even for one-word responses, and she reluctantly added, "Master."

"I'm sure I can figure something out." he muttered, looking almost disappointed, as he seemed to think about something, "So you do like the idea itself, then?"

"I'm still not sure, Master." she answered, frowning. Obviously, whatever he was suggesting both appealed to her on one level, and disgusted her on another. Martha had no idea what it could be, but the idea that the Doctor could possibly choose to comply with anything the Master might want was disturbing in itself.

"Well think about it." he said, shrugging and standing up. This surprised Martha. He wanted the Doctor to willingly help him, whatever it was he was asking of her.

After looking around, as if trying to decide what to do next, he walked over to Martha, and snatched the DVD she was holding out of her hand. "This looks good." he said brightly, "Where's the first one?" he demanded.

Martha quickly found the first disk for the series he had decided to watch, and handed it to him. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He may as well get Big Brother and American Idol while he was at it, for all the intelligence of those shows.

"You can leave now." he growled, and Martha was not about to question that order.

She even went so far as to say, "Thank you, Master." before rushing from the room, eager to get away from the psychotic monster that had destroyed her world.

x x x

It was about a week later, now. Martha was re-filing paperwork that had found itself all over the floor this morning, because the Master had apparently felt like throwing it at the ceiling fan. She was just putting the last few bits of paper back where they belonged, when she noticed that the Master was, once again, speaking to the Doctor. This time they were both sitting on the couch, and he had an arm around her shoulders, seemingly oblivious to the way she tried to lean away from him.

"Have you considered my suggestion?" he asked, his voice was lowered, but not quite enough to stop Martha from hearing, this time.

"I have some conditions, first... Master."

"So that's a 'yes' with an 'if', then?"

"That's right, Master." she sounded almost amused.

"What's the 'if'?" he asked bluntly.

She glanced at Martha, a frown on her face as if she was carefully considering the conditions she would request, but then turned back to the Master and said rather calmly, "I want to know that Jack is still on board. I don't trust you not to have buried him alive, possibly in concrete, or shot him off into space, possibly aimed at the sun, or something else like that. Master."

"Not a problem." the Master said brightly, "I'll even let you see him today, if you'd like. Although I have to warn you, he's not so pretty anymore."

"I'm not surprised." she muttered darkly, "Did you figure anything out, regarding alternatives? Master."

"Nope, the Toclafane got a little trigger-happy. All those lovely extra-terrestrial research centres have been blown up." he said dismissively.

She frowned again, and Martha could see her face. Disbelief written all over it, like the Doctor did not really think that the technology she had asked after had actually been destroyed. Now whether it had existed in the first place or not was a different matter, but even Martha doubted that he'd waste anything from other worlds that he could use to fuel his conquest. But then the Doctor shrugged, "Then my other condition is that you remove this-" she pointed to the band around her neck.

"Not going to happen." the Master interrupted her.

She blinked, then shrugged, "Non-negotiable." she said coldly, "If I'm wearing this, I won't comply, Master."

He rolled his eyes, and shook his head, "Too bad." he said dismissively. And that was the end of that conversation.

x x x

Another two weeks had passed, and for the first time since they were captured, Martha caught the Doctor alone in the conference room. "What's going on?" she asked immediately.

"There's microphones and security cameras all over the place, and if we conspire we get punished. That's what's going on." the Doctor said bluntly.

Martha was well aware of the definition of punishment, she would suffer if the Doctor disobeyed, her family would suffer if she disobeyed. It really was far better motivation to behave than the threat of oneself being harmed. She watched as the Doctor wandered over to the very small bookshelf, which looked rather pathetic sitting next to the DVD collection. She picked up a Red Dwarf novel titled 'Last Human', and examined the back of it, then settled down to read it.

"I hate his taste in television." she said bluntly.

"No kidding. The Tellytubbies? Seriously!" Martha said, relieved to have a chance to rant to someone without guards or Toclafane present. "And Digimon?"

"It could be worse, he doesn't seem to have heard of Pokemon, yet." the Doctor said dismissively.

Martha laughed weakly, but was interrupted by a voice from the doorway, "Talking about someone?" the Master asked, sauntering into the room with a grin on his face, "What, pray tell, is Pokemon?"

"A cartoon, Master." the Doctor answered, biting her lip to avoid laughing.

"Hmph. I will find it, there's got to be a copy of it somewhere on Earth." Just then, there was a beeping noise from the Master's pocket, and he pulled out Jack's wrist-device. "You know, I really didn't believe you when you said you weren't this Cindy girl. And she certainly is persistent." he muttered, pocketing the thing again. Martha's eyes lit up, and she glanced at the Doctor who kept her face blank.

It had to be Tish, right? She was the only one with the number, wasn't she? Well, maybe Jack gave out his number to half of Cardiff- maybe half the Earth- but who else would be calling him during an ongoing apocalypse? Especially using that name, and calling 'persistently'?

The Master, oblivious to Martha's thoughts, threw himself down onto the couch, right next to the Doctor, and in a very childish and annoying gesture, he peered at the title of her novel, and then tried to read over her shoulder. Martha quickly found a shelf to pretend to dust, turning her back on them both, so her first genuine smile since her imprisonment wouldn't be visible.

"Did you want something, Master?" the Doctor asked, sounding as if she was having some trouble avoiding laughing out loud at his behaviour.

"I'll lower the setting on the neural disruptor. I won't remove it."

"Is that your final offer, Master?" the Doctor asked, in a joking tone.

"Yes." he growled.

"Alright. So long as I can sense the room around me, I agree, Master."

"Excellent."

When she heard him say this, especially the tone he had used to say it, Martha found herself unable to resist the urge to suggest, "If I may, Master, you might want to look for the Simpsons DVDs, as well." she said in far too innocent a tone.

"Especially season eight's Hallowe'en special." the Doctor added. Martha frowned in confusion, and the Doctor elaborated a little bit, "It involved Kang and Kodos rigging an election. And they wrote that over a decade ago."

The Master snorted, managing to look both indignant and amused at the same time, "Who are Kang and Kodos?"

Martha shook her head, "And I thought he watched too much T.V."

x x x

Captain Jack Harkness was not very happy at all. He hadn't been fed in a week, and hadn't been otherwise killed for the same length of time. He was fairly certain they were trying to starve him. That wasn't a very pleasant death. He preferred the quicker ones, they may hurt more but they were over before he really knew what hit him, most of the time.

He heard footsteps, and with some effort he raised his head to see who it was. The Master. Just what he _didn't_ need, more demented gloating... although, there was a chance he'd get killed quicker if he was impertinent enough, and then the starvation thing would be over.

But then he saw the figure behind the Master, hidden in the shadows, as if she was ashamed to even be there. The Doctor.

"Hey, beauty. What're you doing hanging around with that beast?" Jack asked her, trying to smile. He knew it had to look false.

She flinched, "Jack... I'm... I'm sorry." she said softly.

"For what?" Jack asked, frowning.

"For not being able to stop him." she stepped past the Master, who allowed her to do so. He was watching Jack with that impassive and emotionless mask he generally seemed to use when he was up to something and didn't want to give away what. "For letting you get hurt." the Doctor continued, and she was now right in front of him, "I'm so sorry."

He shook his head, "I've had worse." he said, distantly. Physically, it was true, though Ianto's death still hurt him, "One time, nuclear bomb. Seriously. Took me two weeks to resurrect from that one."

"Now there's an idea worth considering." the Master said, smirking cruelly.

The Doctor shot him a vicious glare over her shoulder, then turned back to Jack. She reached up and touched the chains that held one of his arms, and frowned, but seemed unable to find the right words.

"Alright, you've seen he's still here, and he's obviously not going anywhere. So come on." the Master beckoned her to follow him, and with one last sad smile for Jack, she did so.

And that was the only visit he got that day, no food, no torture, no death. Left alone to let his own mind torture him, which really was just as effective as any slow and bloody execution the Master could come up with.

x x x

It was around four, the next morning, when Jack was startled out of a feeble attempt at sleep to find the Doctor standing next to him. He stared at her, utterly dumbstruck, which was probably a good thing, since she put one finger to her lips to tell him to be silent as soon as she noticed he was awake.

She was using the Master's laser screwdriver to cut open the chains that held him. As soon as he was free, she beckoned for him to follow her. Without question, he did so.

At the end of a corridor, she paused, frowning in concentration, then seemed to flinch and held the side of her head. He desperately wanted to know what was wrong, but her order of silence really made a lot of sense, so he just gave her a curious and concerned look.

As soon as she saw this, she shook her head, smiling weakly. 'It's nothing', that's what she was trying to tell him. He wasn't buying it. But, very quickly, she moved on again, and he followed, until they found the part of the ship in which the TARDIS was held.

Once they were safely inside the TARDIS, the Doctor walked around the console, scowling at the sight before her. The console itself was caged in. The lighting in the control room was down to an oppressive tone of red. A whole host of unfamiliar and unpleasant looking wiring and bits of metal had been installed, all with apparent and deliberate purpose, making the Doctor's ship into something it was never meant to be. If Jack really thought about it- and he tried not to- all the new parts he saw looked very much like a TARDIS version of the sort of damage Star Trek villains the Borg did to humanoids.

The Doctor looked hurt, as she reached out to touch one of the unmutilated pillars near the wall, closing her eyes as she did so. He felt like he was intruding on something private, the way she caressed it.

"It's your own fault, you know." she said softly. Not to him, he was sure. He'd seen the Doctor talk to the TARDIS before, but never so directly, and usually only when he hadn't known Jack was watching him.

Jack was even more surprised to hear a soft whine from the ship itself, which seemed to answer her, just as directly. Sounded like it was in pain, too. He'd never considered the thought of the ship being sentient before. Alive, obviously... but sentient, that possibility had never crossed his mind. He was beginning to think now that it must be.

"You're as bad as me." the Doctor said with a weak smile, before shaking her head and walking around to the far side of the console.

"What?" Jack asked, confused.

She looked up, as if surprised he was even still here, "Not you. The TARDIS."

"I guessed that." he said, but then smirked as he added, "Sometimes I wonder exactly what your relationship is with it."

The Doctor stared at him for a couple of seconds, before simply correcting him with one word, "Her."

She didn't say anything to disillusion him of the inappropriate suggestion, though. He had been joking, and hoped she was just ignoring his insinuations rather than suggesting they were accurate. But before he could ask, she had gone into one of those manic moments where things need to be done and they're going to be done fast.

She pointed up to the ceiling above the console, "I need you to pull out all those black cables up there." The black cables she indicated fed in through the top of the cage that encircled the console.

Jack laughed at her lack of denial, but then he nodded and immediately began to do as she told him. Meanwhile, she started working on the metal tubes that ran along the floor into the lower part of the console, with the laser screwdriver. He guessed she hadn't recovered the sonic version yet, because he somehow doubted she would use a weapon like that by choice, even for non-violent tasks.

"What was wrong with your head?" he asked, reaching up and ripping out one of the cables, which sparked as he did so.

"Just not easy to sense for danger when I'm wearing this thing." she answered.

"What thing?"

"The collar. It's an Iridian neural disruptor."

"Ouch." Jack muttered.

He had experience with those. They were generally used against beings with any form of extra-sensory perception, to weaken them. One time, he had been captured by Iridian slavers. He'd escaped, but the point was he knew those collars hurt. And he was only human. Admittedly, psychic abilities were more common in humans from his time than in the twenty-first century, but he imagined it would be a lot worse for a Time Lord.

After a few seconds, and two more of the black cables being ripped out, he asked, "So where is the Master?"

"He's a bit tied up right now." the Doctor answered rather vaguely.

"How'd you manage that?" Jack asked.

"Took him by surprise." she said, in a final tone that said there was to be no more discussion on that matter.

Jack raised an eyebrow, sparing a glance for her, only to see her continuing to work on cutting those metal tubes, and not giving anything away with the expression on her face, save for concentration on what she was doing. He wondered exactly how she'd managed to surprise the Master and tie him up, his mind taking him to the usual inappropriate conclusions, which he seriously doubted were at all likely.

"How're you doing up there?"

Jack ripped out two more of the cables, "Almost done."

He heard a whirring noise from the console itself, as if the TARDIS was waking up, "Make it quick." she demanded. And he pulled the last cable, which caused the TARDIS to start shaking rather violently. He fell down onto the metal grilled floor, quickly finding a railing to hold on to, and not letting go. He glanced over at the Doctor, who hadn't moved from just next to the console, and was hanging on tight to the cage around the console itself, grinning like a maniac. "Break paradox machine, undo paradox, reverse time! These last three months never happened!" she said gleefully.

Jack stared at her, a smile slowly forming on his face as those words sank in, until he was grinning just as brightly as her. They were alive again! "So will anyone else remember-?" he asked.

"Only those on the Valiant, I'm guessing." she answered, as the shaking stopped, and Jack was able to stand again.

"Martha?" he asked.

"Probably around somewhere, no idea where." she said, standing up herself, "I was surprised he let me see where he kept you, I didn't want to push my luck."

"Well, let's go find her."

"Just a minute." and she disappeared further into the TARDIS. About ten minutes later, she returned, muttering, "Really would only have taken one minute if the TARDIS had wanted to let me find the room I kept this in." she was holding a small black box just about the right size to hold half a dozen CD cases, and what looked like a couple of shiny silver pieces of jewellery. One might have been a bracelet, though it looked like it was made out of liquid metal. The other was definitely a necklace, looking a bit like a small locket. "I don't think she likes what I'm planning."

"What are those? And what _are_ you planning?"

"You'll see."

x x x

She gave Jack detailed instructions on exactly what still needed to be ripped out from around the console to make the TARDIS operable again, then went to find Martha and her parents. It took almost an hour, searching the ship, without being able to sense anything further than half a corridor away, but finally she found them. It had been quite embarrassing when she had learned just how much she had relied on her other senses, and being reduced to the five that humans operate on had made her feel completely helpless for weeks. She still hated it, and would be glad to be rid of this infernal collar.

"What just happened?" Martha demanded, as the door opened and the Doctor stepped into the room.

The Doctor grinned, "It's now three months, four days and twenty hours ago." the Doctor answered brightly, "Well, nineteen hours and seven minutes, now. Took me a while to find you." Martha looked confused, and tried to figure out what that meant, "Right after the President got killed." the Doctor clarified.

"Oh!" Martha's eyes lit up, "How'd you do that?"

"I'll explain later." the Doctor said, shrugging, "Right now, we want to get off this ship before UNIT shows up and tries to figure out who to arrest." she looked up at Martha's parents, "If UNIT asks, Harold Saxon killed the President. That is all they ever need to know."

"But... even if you did undo it all, it still happened." Mrs Jones said, confused, "I remember it."

The Doctor sighed, "I know, but... we don't have time to argue. Please trust me. I can deal with the Master. I know from past experience that UNIT cannot. Right now, even if he was unconscious when I left him, I don't trust him alone for much longer."

Mrs Jones frowned, but eventually conceded, "I don't suppose there's time to argue." she muttered, clearly unhappy with the idea of letting the Doctor take control here, it was obvious she'd much rather see the Master dead, or worse.

"Martha, this way." and she turned to leave, just managing to hear Martha promise her parents she'd see them back down on Earth soon, before she was out the door.

Jack met up with them not long after. It was obvious he'd had tracking training from the Time Agency, the Doctor hadn't been able to find her way so quickly through the Valiant without her own natural senses. "What next?" Jack asked her.

"Now we pick up the Master, and get him out of here before UNIT claim they can succeed in locking him up again." the Doctor said, smiling innocently.

"I seem to remember reading something about sea monsters." Jack noted too brightly, only adding to the Doctor's desire for an interrogation later, about the Captain's stalking of her past lives.

x x x

It didn't take long for them to reach a room where the Doctor claimed the Master was being held. She told them to wait outside.

Five minutes later, she reappeared, leading a very disgruntled Master by the hand. He was muttering in a language neither Jack nor Martha recognised. The Doctor had to tell him off for swearing five times, though, before telling him to just shut up altogether.

"Care to explain why he's not in some way restrained? Handcuffs, shackles... a gag?" Jack demanded, as the four walked through the corridors, towards the TARDIS.

"Restraint band." the Doctor said, pointing to the metal wristband the Master wore, which looked like it was actually a part of his arm, it was so tight to his skin and moved when he did as if it was the same consistency as the skin it was attached to. "At this point, he has to obey every instruction I give him, and a permanent feature of this device is that he is unable to wilfully cause any harm to any living thing, without the express permission of whoever wears this." she pointed to the silver necklace, which she was now wearing. It was then that Jack noticed the disruptor collar was gone, she had most likely used the restraint band to order the Master to remove the despicable thing. "I'll fine-tune it later. No touching TARDIS controls, no leaving a planet without me, that sort of thing."

The Master glared balefully at her, but said nothing. Martha realised with mild horror that he actually _couldn't_ say anything. "You should allow him to speak." she said, frowning, "You just ordered him to shut up a minute ago."

The Doctor frowned, seeming only now to realise this herself, and nodded in agreement with Martha, "Alright, you're allowed to speak." she said to the Master, "But I'd prefer if you didn't. I do like Jack's idea of a gag."

Jack laughed, "What about the handcuffs?"

"Kinky." she said, with a grin, "But no." she added, as the group entered the TARDIS.

Martha's parents had already been sent back down to Earth with a UNIT taskforce, who would take statements, and all that fun stuff. Martha and Jack were spared that indignity by leaving via TARDIS. Odds were UNIT had already left a few dozen messages on Torchwood's answering machine for Jack to deal with later, but for now he could run away with them if he chose to.

"You, sit. There." she told the Master, who managed to act like the world's sulkiest teenager wanting to throw a temper tantrum, as he walked over to the couch in the TARDIS' control room, and sat. The Doctor then began manipulating the controls on the console. "So, want to help me hunt down a Varisian?" she asked brightly.

"Sure thing." Jack said, grinning.

"Yeah, I'm in." Martha agreed.

"Alright, then." the Doctor cheered, "Allons-y." and with that, the TARDIS dematerialised from Earth.

As they travelled through the Vortex, much more smoothly than was usual for the Doctor, Jack finally asked the question both humans had been thinking, "So how _did_ you escape, anyway?"

The Master scowled, and looked at the ground, as if he was hoping she wouldn't answer. Well, what evil overlord would want anyone to know how he was defeated, anyway? Especially when his most important and well-guarded prisoner was the one to do so.

The Doctor turned to stare at Jack- a calculating stare that showed absolutely no emotion- before smiling with an almost cruel glint in her eyes, "Sea turtles, Captain." she said flatly.

Jack blinked, then snarled, "I _hate_ that movie!" Martha started giggling at his reaction, while the Doctor just smiled distantly.

"I don't get it." the Master said flatly, finally speaking for the first time since the Doctor had said he was allowed to.

"Pirates of the Caribbean. I have a copy of it around here somewhere. You can watch it if you like." the Doctor said innocently, choosing not to pay any attention to the continuous stream of insults to Disney that Jack was now muttering.

x x x


	11. New Rules

x x x

**Chapter 11: New Rules**

x x x

There were two hours before the data to locate the Varisian could be processed, and it was entirely automated. The TARDIS did all the work, leaving the two Time Lords and two humans with very little to do in the meantime.

The Master found the T.V. room, and the DVD of Pirates of the Caribbean, and then refused to acknowledge the presence of anyone else when they tried to communicate with him.

So the Doctor left him to it, locking the door to the T.V. room, and wandering further into the TARDIS. She found Jack in the kitchen, stuffing his face with more sugar-related foods than any human should ever consider eating in one go.

After getting herself a cup of tea, she sat down opposite him, "Hey." she said warily.

"Hey." he answered, polite enough to stop eating, seeing as she clearly wanted to talk.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah. Just been starved for a while. Literally." he said, grinning.

"That doesn't look much more healthy." she noted. He simply shrugged. "I'm sorry." she said quietly.

"Not your fault." he said, shrugging.

"Yes it is. I should have found a different way to-"

"You didn't know." Jack interrupted.

"But I should have."

"You're not omniscient."

She snorted, "Time Lords are supposed to be. Well, pretty close to it, anyway."

"And he's also a Time Lord. He had the advantage, he got there first, and you were racing to catch up, you didn't have time to realise what he was doing until it was too late."

"Again. Time Lord. Time is something I should be able to deal with."

"Stop blaming yourself."

"I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

"You never do." Jack said, smiling distantly, "Remember the first night we met? 'Just this once, everyone lives'. That's what you said. Seems to me like you've been fighting a losing battle for a long time. And you somehow always manage to win, even if there is a price."

"What happens with that price gets too high?" she asked distantly.

"How many people died this time?"

"I'm not sure. Can't be as many as would have died if I hadn't stopped him, but still."

"I've seen worse." he smiled distantly, "Besides, I don't blame you for my torture. You shouldn't blame yourself."

"What about Martha, and her family?"

"From what I heard, they were just humiliated and threatened. Treated as slaves. Not pleasant, but they weren't physically harmed, as far as I can tell."

"I'll have to ask him." she said, frowning.

"Why didn't you let UNIT take him?"

"They would have executed him."

"So...?"

"There are, at this moment, precisely two Time Lords left in the entire universe."

"That you know of." he added pointedly.

She smiled faintly. It was a valid point, she hadn't known that the Master had survived until it was too late to stop him. "I don't want to be alone again. I mean, even if he hates me... I already destroyed my own homeworld, I can't kill the last survivor of that."

Jack frowned, "I suppose you have a point." he said reluctantly, "I still hate him, though."

"Well, yeah." she said, in a tone that says she knew that already, duh.

"So how _did_ you escape?"

"You're never going to get me to answer that, Captain. You might as well stop asking."

He raised an eyebrow at that, "Now I really want to know." he noted, suggesting that the question had only been idle curiosity before, but now he might just make it his main goal in life to find out the answer, just because she said she'd never tell.

"Whatever you might automatically think, please don't." she said, sounding offended.

He laughed, "I should hope not."

It was at this point that she decided to change the subject. No time like the present for a friendly interrogation, "So, Jack. You as good as admitted to stalking my past lives?"

He shrugged, "I thought if I found you, you could help me."

"Help you die?" she asked, frowning. He shrugged, not meeting her eyes, and she could tell that, at some point, that was exactly what he had wanted. She decided it best not to press that point, it was clear he had changed his opinion since then. "So what did you find out about me?"

"Not much, to be honest. Just what official files showed. First I heard of you during that century was in nineteen sixty-three." he shrugged and added dismissively, "I did investigate something in nineteen thirteen, but it proved to be a false lead."

"Actually, nineteen thirteen probably was me." she said brightly, "Chameleon Arch."

He stared at her for a second, then said slowly, "Okaaaay..."

She pretended not to notice his confusion, and continued, "Sixty-three would have been my seventh life, I'm guessing."

Jack shook his head, covering his face with one hand as he muttered, "And I thought this was confusing _before_ I started telling you what I knew."

She just smiled, and said, "Keep going."

He looked up at her, a slightly lost look on his face, quite probably wondering why he was doing the talking when she could make this so much clearer. But all she wanted to do here was find out what he knew, and make sure he understood. She had no intention of going into details. Not just with him, but ever. "After that, UNIT records showed two of your incarnations in the seventies and eighties, although the second was only mentioned briefly and not in a complimentary way."

"The one with the scarf?" she asked, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

He nodded, mumbling, "Mmhm."

"My fourth life. Not my finest."

"But there are extensive files on the one before that." he pointed out.

She laughed, "You'll be surprised to hear this, but those two were actually in correct chronological order."

"So that was your third?" Jack asked.

"Yep." she nodded once, before adding, "And the Master would have been mentioned then, as well, I assume."

"Yeah, that was when both organisations first recognised him." Jack said, clearly wanting to ask more, but he seemed to understand that she didn't want to talk about what was- to her- the past, any more than necessary. She waited for a second, and he recognised that as a prompt to continue, so he did. "Torchwood recorded something in the mid-nineties about possessions they thought you were to blame for?" he made it sound like a question, but he couldn't have actually believed the Doctor would do something like that.

"That was the Master again." she said simply.

"Ah." he said, nodding in understanding. So that was all that needed to be said about that. Good thing, too. Jack did not need to hear the details of that encounter. It might make him think.

"Wouldn't be the first time Torchwood blamed me for something I put a stop to." she said, shrugging innocently.

Jack laughed, "Yeah, I did read the founding story. You and Rose met a real werewolf? Is that true?"

"Yep." she brightly. She waited for another moment, but when he didn't continue she asked, "So that was it?"

He nodded slowly, though the Doctor got the impression that he was holding something back. She doubted it was anything relevant, now, though. Wouldn't surprise her if he'd actually met one of her future selves as well, she had two good regenerations left, after all, and she knew he wasn't stupid enough to tell her what her own (relative) future held.

She grinned, half-laughing, and took pity on him enough to actually give him some new information, "So you failed to track down my worst incarnation... and my best!"

"Oh yeah?" he asked, perking up hopefully.

"Six was... unstable. To be polite about it." she frowned, thinking about that for a moment. Six had actually been compared closely to the Master, on more than one occasion, and she didn't like to acknowledge the fact that it had been with good reason. Or to think too much on that life at all, for that matter... especially not the incident immediately after regenerating into it. And then there was the trial, which put him in an even worse light than that. "Five was my favourite, though." she finished, allowing those memories to turn her scowl into a genuine smile.

Jack opened his mouth to ask more, but was interrupted as Martha arrived, "There you two are." she declared, entering the kitchen, "Trying to kill yourself with a sugar overdose?" she added, seeing what Jack had been eating.

"The Master tried to have me starved to death." Jack retorted bluntly.

"Oh." she trailed off, then took a seat next to the Doctor, in silence. "How did you escape, anyway?" she asked.

"The Doctor let me out." Jack said, and both of them turned to look at the Doctor.

"What?" she asked. "I already said, I took him by surprise."

"Uh huh." Martha said, clearly taking Jack's favourite angle on the situation.

"Oh, both of you, give it a rest. Please." she said, laughing.

"No chance." Jack said, grinning brightly, "I intend to find out every sordid little detail."

Martha choked at his choice of words, but nodded to show she still wanted to know what had happened, too.

"You humans are obsessed, you know that, don't you?"

x x x

The Doctor found the Master in the T.V. room, right where she had left him. He was still watching that DVD, so it was a good thing Jack had not decided to follow her.

Without waiting for her to speak, the Master held up his hand, "Shh, fight scene."

She rolled her eyes, "Pause it, or I'll tell you how it ends."

He hit the pause button immediately, and glared at her. "What's so important?"

"A lot of things are more important than movies." she said bluntly.

"But this is a movie that annoys that immortal freak!" he protested, as if that really did make it incredibly important.

"I'm going to set the rules on your restraint band." she said, sitting down next to him.

He frowned, clearly unsure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, then seemed to decide there was no point fighting her, so he held out his arm. Still with the petulant teenager look.

She took off the pendant she wore, and touched it to the band on his wrist, then took out her sonic screwdriver, and began modifying the settings on the two devices.

"So what are these rules?" he asked, as she did this.

"Well, for a start, you no longer need to do everything I tell you to. Unless I start the sentence with the words 'I order you'." she said, smiling.

"An improvement." he conceded.

"No deliberately killing, maiming, or otherwise causing harm to any living thing. If you accidentally step on a bug, or something like that, you won't get punished for it, but if you deliberately stepped on the same bug while trying to pretend it was an accident, well, this can tell the difference."

"Lovely." he said sarcastically.

"If I give you permission to harm someone or something, then you can. But you cannot interpret vague statements like 'this guy needs to be taught a lesson' to count as permission. It has to be a direct command to you that you are allowed to harm it."

He sighed, trying to find the loophole, but she had been very thorough in her explanation.

"If you go further than five miles away from me, not counting the internal dimensions of the TARDIS itself, you will be punished. The only exception to this is if we are somehow separated against our will, in which case it can detect your intentions in what you do until the distance is closed; you need to try to find me again."

"Next you're going to expect me to rescue you if you're in danger." he muttered sulkily.

"Somehow, I think you'll do that anyway. You don't want me dead, and you never did."

He looked up at her sharply, having been staring at the restraint band until now, "What makes you think that?"

"You said once, life would be boring without me around."

"I believe the word I used was 'peaceful'."

"For you, same difference." she noted, smiling.

He shook his head, and resumed glaring at his arm, idly wondering if cutting off the arm in question would free him.

"No causing harm to yourself, either. You do count as a living thing, after all." she said, seeming to guess what he'd been thinking.

He rolled his eyes, "Any other rules?" he asked coldly.

"No touching TARDIS controls. Door controls are ok, for most rooms. Try getting into the lab or my room and you'll get hurt, though."

He smirked, "Why would I want to get into your room?" the tone in which he asked this was suggestive.

"To try to incapacitate me while I sleep, and regain your freedom, maybe." she offered a perfectly platonic alternative, quite determinedly ignoring his insinuation. "Oh, and I don't want you claiming you're God again, so that's on the rules list."

"I never used the word 'God'." he protested.

"It was strongly implied." she said pointedly.

"You're not going to let me have any fun, are you?" he asked, as she finally released his arm, and put the pendant back around her neck.

"Define fun." she said, smirking, "Because I've not locked you out of the T.V. room yet, nor have I said you can't own an MP3 player... as long as you have headphones and don't sing along. I've also not forbidden violence against inanimate objects, so if you feel the need to cause some sort of destruction, that's what the exercise room is for."

He laughed, a cold short laugh that still managed to hold some morbid humour in spite of the tone, "I still hate you." he pointed out.

"I hate you too." she said, grinning and standing up, "Now you can go back to watching Sparrow kill Barbossa if you want." and she left the room, laughing as his curses echoed through the corridor even after she had closed the door.

x x x

"I just want to clarify this." Martha said, "We are looking for a Darth Maul look-alike, on a desert world, in a binary star system, and I'm the only one who finds it ironic?"

"You'd be surprised how many binary systems are out there, and they're all hot as hell." Jack said idly.

"It is funny, though." the Doctor put in helpfully, "And they're not all that hot. Some of the habitable worlds of binary systems can be pretty cold, actually."

"Please shut up." the Master muttered, darkly. The Doctor had refused to leave him alone in the TARDIS, even with the restraint band to prevent him from touching the controls, so he had been dragged along against his will.

"I'll shut up when I'm ready to shut up, and not before." she retorted, knowing perfectly well what had offended him. He just glared at her.

It really looked nothing like Tatooine. The buildings were made of white stone, and the whole planet wasn't like this, just the city they'd landed in happened to be in the middle of a desert. Looked more like something out of Disney's Aladdin, rather than something out of Star Wars, really.

It did have two suns, but they weren't visible right now. Instead, there was a single moon, much larger- or more accurately closer- than Earth's, and the sky was paler than Earth's would have been at this time of night, almost royal blue, making it feel like it was still twilight.

They went to the local drinking establishment, because it's always a very good place to find information, "And I hear they make excellent banana daiquiris here."

"I can tell you where to shove your bananas." the Master growled under his breath.

"Now there's an interesting mental picture." Jack noted brightly.

"Honestly, men." Martha muttered, irritably, "Um, no offence Doctor."

"None taken." she said, grinning, almost laughing. Once she had wiped the grin off her face, she approached the barmaid, a very pretty alien with long pointed ears that actually went further up than the top of her head, and pale green skin. "We're looking for someone, any chance you might be able to help us?" she asked hopefully.

"No way, lady." the alien said, dismissively. Her tone was arrogant, implying she was not interested in dealing with what she considered a weaker being.

"Maybe you could ask her?" the Master suggested to Jack, with some malice concealed behind a bright smile, "You know, sweet-talk the pretty alien lady."

"Hell no!" Jack said indignantly.

"Why not?" Martha asked, confused. She knew Jack well enough, he'd flirted with her, with a bunch of different people- of both genders- at the end of the universe, and even that insectoid alien, Chantho. He was pretty open-minded about it. In fact, she'd thought he would flirt with anything with a pulse, just by saying hello. Why not this alien?

"Ever heard of a movie called Teeth?" Jack asked, giving the Master a glare for the very suggestion. The Master's expression was trying to look far too innocent, as if he really had no idea that particular species of alien was like that. No idea at all. It wasn't fooling anyone. Finally he gave up, and started laughing.

"You should ask her, Master." the Doctor said, grinning brightly as he stopped laughing rather abruptly, "I get the feeling your natural charms might work better on her than Jack's, anyway."

Jack gave her a confused look, but before she could explain, the Master shrugged, "If you insist." he said, approaching the barmaid.

No one heard what he said, he had lowered his voice so only the barmaid could hear him. Her eyes widened in fear, but then she nodded and answered him quickly.

"What'd he do?" Jack asked.

"Probably threatened her." the Doctor said dismissively. The alien woman's eyes were not glazed, so the Master definitely wasn't trying to dominate her mind. "Well?" she asked, as the Master returned, still looking like a sulky teenager.

"This way." and he led the way out of the building.

x x x

Three streets away, in a market place, they spotted the Varisian. He was talking to a relatively human-looking alien. In this time, humanity had not reached this galaxy yet, but the Doctor really wasn't sure of the species of the one their quarry was speaking to. It was well-concealed, and could have been one of several races. It looked humanoid enough, and had pale human-coloured skin, but that didn't actually mean anything. The most obvious example being that Time Lords _looked_ human, but definitely weren't. Then there were other worlds like Traken, Stow, Betelgeuse seven, the list goes on.

When this being left, the Varisian turned to walk away from the meeting, but stopped when he saw the group, and recognised Martha and the Doctor.

"Oh, the girlies brought backup this time." he sneered, "You'll never take me in!" and before any of the four could react, he had drawn and fired his weapon. Civilians fled from the scene or hid behind their stalls. Martha was not the only one who shrieked in shock. She hadn't thought even the best gunslingers could draw that fast.

Jack, however. Well, he got hit. The Master laughed, as he dodged the weapon-fire aimed for him, "Is that all you've got?" he sneered.

The Doctor took a few steps forward, so she could speak without shouting, her hands held out to the sides to show she was unarmed. "I just want that weapon. I have no intention of capturing you, if you comply." she informed the Varisian.

"Ha! I don't believe you!" he retorted, "You must be a bounty hunter, to track me this far!"

"I only tracked you, to get that weapon. To be able to undo what you did to me." she said calmly, suddenly noticing that Martha had disappeared.

"Liar!" the Varisian snarled, firing again at the Master, who once again dodged easily.

"He's not listening to reason." the Master noted, his tone almost taunting, as if he was trying not to laugh at the mere fact that the Doctor had tried to reason with it in the first place.

"You're right. Hurt him, Master." it was an order.

"With pleasure." he replied, charging at the Varisian. Two more shots were dodged as he closed the distance between them, and struck the alien with a sharp uppercut to the jaw. He usually considered himself above such direct physical confrontations, but he had been given permission to hurt something and considered that it was worth the effort, since he had no other form of weaponry to use but his bare hands. It stunned the alien for a second, but didn't incapacitate him. Then the Master grinned as he saw something behind the alien, stopping his own assault to get out of the way of this new development.

The Doctor didn't see it until the alien froze, and keeled over forwards, revealing Martha standing behind it, holding a large metal object, which looked suspiciously like a frying pan, and now had holes in it where it had been pierced by the Varisian's horns.

"Fat lot of use you were!" Martha said brightly to the Doctor.

At almost exactly the same time, the Master said, "Pacifistic fool."

The two looked at each other, glared, but then seemed to come to the mutual understanding that the Doctor should be the one on the receiving end of both those glares, and turned on her instead.

Half a second of silence passed, then, "You break it you buy it!" a brave stall-holder declared from one side.

Martha gave the diminutive alien that had spoken a faint smile, which it might have interpreted as dangerous, because it quickly hid. "You gonna pay for this, Doctor?" she asked, before grinning outright.

The Doctor shrugged, and pulled out what looked like a bit of plastic from her jacket pocket, and threw it in the direction of the stall holder, who caught it easily and examined it for authenticity. "Keep the change." she added, and the little alien grinned broadly and nodded eagerly. She had brought money with her only because she'd expected the possibility of needing to bribe people for information on the Varisian. Correct currency, and all! This was probably a completely unique occurrence for the Doctor, and highly unlikely to be repeated. Ever.

The Master had picked up the weapon the Varisian had used, and was now looking at it carefully, but he didn't seem interested in trying to use it. Most probably because he wasn't sure if it would count as 'causing harm' if he did, and he didn't seem eager to test the restraint band.

"On no, not again!" A female voice declared loudly from behind them. The Doctor turned around sharply to see Captain Jack sitting up and staring down at her chest. Her hair had grown to almost shoulder-length, and the shape of her face was softer, but it was obviously the same person. And she had every right, in the Doctor's opinion, to be staring at her chest right now, those were huge!

"You've done this before, Captain?" the Doctor asked, smirking.

"Once." was the rather blunt answer, "It was fun for the first week." then she shuddered at the memory of what happened after that, making it quite clear what she was thinking about.

"That is why you'll never catch me using a Chameleon Arch while I'm a woman." the Doctor said brightly, watching as Jack stood up. Her female form wasn't much shorter than he had been before, she now stood at almost exactly the same height as the Master.

"Wait, you mean Time Lords don't get PMS?" Jack asked suddenly, realising what the Doctor had just said.

"Nope." the Doctor said, and by Jack's sulky glare, it was obvious that she was being far too cheerful about that fact.

"Physically, technically." the Master added, grinning evilly at Jack's obvious annoyance, "But I spent half a decade stuck on the same ship as the Rani, and she _did_ try to kill me once every twenty-nine days like clockwork."

"I feel I should hit you." Martha said coldly, watching the Doctor, who had the good grace to stop smiling, "But the question is where, with what, and whether or not I should wait until you turn back into a man first." Only after flinching at that suggestion did the Doctor realise that Martha was smiling now, a cruelly amused smile, but still she wasn't genuinely angry. It wasn't a real threat, just a verbal retaliation for the rest of this conversation.

After the silence had gone on too long, the Master decided to change the subject, "Well that was fun." he said with false cheerfulness, glancing at the alien they had beaten up, "What do we do with him now?"

"We should turn him over to the authorities." the Doctor said, pondering this, and pretending that the previous conversation had never happened, "I'm sure he's wanted on at least a couple of planets."

"I was leaning more in favour of torture." the Master noted.

"I'm sure you were." the Doctor said coldly.

"Turn him into a girl, see how he likes it." Jack suggested.

"No." the Doctor said, rather emphatically.

"Why not?" Martha asked.

"Female Varisians are born crippled, completely defenceless." the Doctor explained, "It's a sort of evolutionary accident. It's why this weapon was designed by them. Their race are generally immune to the types of energy used by normal stun-weapons."

"That kind of sucks for the women." Martha noted.

"But on the whole, they're a noble race." the Doctor noted, "This one is an exception rather than the rule. They defend their females with great vehemence. If you so much as idly threatened one, you'd have a dozen of their warships after you until you were dead." she glanced at Jack, "And stayed that way."

"Not so bad then." Martha grumbled, still not liking the idea very much.

"Let's get this back to the TARDIS, so I can figure out how to reverse it." the Doctor said brightly.

x x x

As they walked, Jack caught up with the Doctor and asked her a question the others couldn't hear.

"Why am I not surprised?" the Doctor asked aloud.

Martha and the Master exchanged a look, "I don't want to know." Martha muttered.

"I do." the Master said, grinning evilly. Jack glanced over her shoulder, and made a very rude gesture at the Master, before speaking to the Doctor again, too quietly to be heard by the other two.

"No." the Doctor answered flatly, to whatever Jack was asking, "Definitely not."

"Too bad." Jack said, shrugging. "Martha-"

"I don't think so." Martha laughed before Jack could ask. Jack spared the briefest glance for the Master, but quickly shook her head and decided it was not worth asking him.

By the time they reached the TARDIS, Jack had started muttering a continuous stream of alien swear-words, all directed at the Varisian they had left in the custody of the local authorities. Though he did include a few directed at the Doctor, about not being allowed to have any fun, as well.

"You need to learn to avoid weapons-fire occasionally." the Doctor suggested unhelpfully.

"You can reverse it though, right?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Of course I can." the Doctor said, grinning with almost cruel amusement at Jack's obvious irritation.

"Should leave the freak like that." the Master muttered, "Preferably in some medieval Earth society. See how many times she gets burned as a witch."

"I will kill you." Jack hissed at the Master.

"Just try it." the Master retorted.

"Jack, don't." the Doctor said, before Jack could properly raise a fist to hit the Master.

"Aww, can't I just maim him? Even a little?" Jack whined, "All the times he killed me, he deserves it."

"I said no."

"You ever going to say yes to anything I want, eh Doc?"

"I wouldn't hold my breath waiting." she said, smiling innocently, before unlocking the TARDIS and leading the way inside. It was a genuine smile, though. She really did like Jack, just not in the way the human so often suggested.

x x x

It took less than half an hour for the Doctor to reconfigure the weapon to reverse it effects. It was designed to be reversible, the only problem was that the Doctor had to figure out how the thing worked in the first place in order to do so.

The Master had disappeared soon after they had entered the TARDIS, and Jack had followed to 'make sure he doesn't do anything too evil'. Martha remained with the Doctor, and was watching with curiosity in spite of not knowing what the Time Lord was actually doing with this piece of technology. The Doctor tried to explain it to her as she worked on it, but she somehow doubted Martha understood most- if any- of it.

"So by inhibiting the DNA on this level, it prevents the body from recognising the male chromosomes. And the phasic pulse destabilises every individual cell in the body, causing it to re-read the genetic code and reconfigure to appear female. DNA samples would reveal the fact that the target was meant to be male, but other than that-"

She paused in her lecture, looking up as the Master dragged a laughing and unresisting Captain Jack into the lab, "Doctor, you should turn this immortal freak back to his original self and kick him off this ship, before I decide to find out whether or not the restraint band recognises murdering her as a punishable offence." he snarled, shoving Jack away from him, further into the room.

Jack stumbled, but didn't fall, and turned to face the Master, still laughing, "Don't know why you're so offended." she said brightly.

"What did you do, Captain?" the Doctor asked, both exasperated and amused at the same time.

"Nothing I haven't been doing for the last three months, already, anyway." Jack answered, feigning innocence. It didn't suit her.

"And I am offended, because for the first time, you actually made me consider the suggestion!" the Master snapped, glaring at Jack.

"Well, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask one more time." Jack said with a bright grin, "I did wonder if your opinion might have changed, since my appearance did." as she said this, she folded her arms quite deliberately, in a way that drew attention to her breasts. Not even been female for an hour yet, but she clearly knew exactly what she was doing.

The Master continued to glare, not showing any sign of noticing Jack's body-language, "At least when I was torturing you, I assumed you were only trying to infuriate me."

"Still succeeding there." Jack pointed out, smirking.

The Master turned to the Doctor, still furious, "If you really do intend to keep me prisoner here, and for some strange reason you actually expect me to behave, you had best get rid of this freak. I don't really want to test this infernal trinket you've made me wear, any more than I imagine you want to see her dead."

The Doctor gave Jack an amused look, "I really hope you're proud of yourself. I think you scared him."

"How does it make any difference, anyway?" Martha asked, confused, "I mean, you're still you, regardless of what you look like, right?" This statement, in itself, strongly implied that Martha's crush had not been in the slightest affected by the Doctor's temporary change of gender, either.

"The Master does strongly prefer females." the Doctor pointed out, smirking as the Master shot her a vicious glare for it.

"And fifty-first century human pheromones have a stronger effect when they come from a member of your preferred gender." Jack added brightly.

The Master turned that glare on Jack in an instant, "So you were coming on to me using chemical intoxicants?" he asked incredulously.

"You have absolutely no right to feign moral indignity on any subject, Master." the Doctor pointed out, though she was waiting for Jack to explain herself before making any judgement on the Captain's behaviour.

"Can't make someone sleep with me that way." Jack said, shrugging, "Just make them notice me in that context. Apparently, I did make him think about it."

Judging by the expression on the Master's face, he really would try to kill Jack, if nothing was done to change the direction of this conversation, "Maybe you should sit down, Captain." the Doctor said, indicating a nearby chair.

Jack obediently sat where she was told to, without question. Before the Captain knew what hit her, the Doctor had picked up the Varisian gun, and shot her with it. Jack only had time to let out a startled gasp, before a flash of blue-white light engulfed her.

Two seconds later, as the light faded, the Master could be heard to complain, "Aww, I was hoping you'd make a mistake and it would kill him."

Jack was unconscious, but otherwise back to his usual handsome self. The Doctor ignored the Master's words, and proceeded to put the weapon away in one of the cupboards under the workbench, locking and sealing it so that no one else should be able to get at the weapon without her permission.

The Master showed very little surprise at this, but Martha had to ask, "You're not changing yourself back?"

"Not yet." the Doctor answered, giving absolutely no explanation for it. She noticed the Master's lack of confusion, and guessed that he clearly thought he knew why she might have chosen to remain female. She idly wondered if his guess was accurate, or not.

Either way, didn't really matter.

Jack woke up, suddenly, at this point. The first thing he did was to look down, confirming that he was himself again.

The Doctor laughed at his behaviour, but then asked the important question, "So where do we want to go next?"

x x x

The Doctor wasn't exactly surprised when Martha chose to return to her family. She understood. What did surprise her was that Jack also wanted to return to Earth.

Captain Jack, of all the humans the Doctor had met, understood time travel well enough to know that he could be dropped off at exactly that same moment, having travelled for years, and nothing would cause his friends any harm in that non-existent instant that he was gone from their relative timeline. Still, she wasn't about to argue with either of them.

So it was that the TARDIS landed on Earth, about three and a half seconds after it had left the Valiant.

"You sure you can deal with this one on your own?" Jack asked, for the fifty-seventh time, as he nodded in the direction of the Master to show who he was talking about.

"Positive." the Doctor said, fully aware of the fact that the Master had just pulled a face behind her, without even needing to look.

"'Cause if you ever need someone to beat him up, I'm only too happy to volunteer." Jack noted brightly.

"I'll keep that in mind." she said, with a tone that implied it was never going to come to that.

x x x


	12. Donna Noble

x x x

**Chapter 12: Donna Noble**

x x x

"So what fun adventure are you plotting to drag me along on this time?" the Master snarked, deliberately taking up the entire couch in the control room, and looking incredibly bored. He had been stuck with her for almost three weeks, and so far they had done nothing but get into trouble on whatever planet they visited.

Since the Doctor had done as she had promised, and 'fine-tuned' the restraint bracelet, it was actually possible for him to almost pretend he wasn't a prisoner... until she wanted to go somewhere or do something, and he was forced to tag along. This was never fun, but as she quite rightly pointed out she couldn't trust him to be left alone on the TARDIS, and someone needed to keep an eye on him if he was to behave.

"Something odd going on, on Earth." the Doctor answered.

"There's a surprise." the Master said sarcastically.

The Doctor rolled her eyes at him, and then glared pointedly, "I've already figured out the who and the what, and where they're from. I just need to know why and how."

"That's new." the Master sniped, "You knowing something about a situation _before_ diving into it."

The Doctor continued to glare, "Adipose. Ever heard of them?"

"Nope." the Master said, dismissively. He really didn't care about any of her little crusades.

"Then you know less than I do about the situation. Undercover investigation. Infiltration and sneakery. Just your area of expertise." she said brightly, as if she hoped this would get him interested in helping her.

"Wonderful." the Master said sarcastically. He really did not enjoy being dragged along on these little missions the Doctor took it upon herself to deal with, but he had very little choice in the matter.

x x x

"Health and safety? That's the best excuse you could come up with?" the Master asked, as the two of them walked towards the building.

"You have a better idea?" the Doctor sniped at him.

"Actually, I do."

"Do share, then."

"Simple, break into someone's office and get a look at their paperwork." he said it as if this was perfectly normal, and he had no chance of being caught. In all honesty, he could easily get away with it, if he felt like it, and it _would_ be more fun than actually talking to humans, like the Doctor planned to do.

"Alright, then. You do that." the Doctor said, grinning, "I'm sticking with the health and safety plan. Meet me back here in three hours, or I'll activate that." she indicated the restraint band.

He glared, but nodded, "As you command." he sneered.

The Doctor smiled brightly at him, "And try and have fun, even if you're not allowed to hurt anyone or blow anything up."

"What else is there that I can do that's fun?" he demanded.

"I don't know. Be creative."

And so the Master found his way up to the administration floor near the top of the building. He couldn't help imagining how much better this place must have looked when his little homicidal pets had ransacked it. Blood splattering those far-too-clean white walls. Broken glass everywhere. Computers and paperwork burning. Maybe some screams echoing through the corridors from some hapless victim or other.

Yes, that would be nice.

"I'm sorry, sir, this floor is off limits to customers-"

The Master turned to look the young man who had spoken in the eyes, "You never saw me." he said, forcing that thought into the defenceless human's mind. And the man wandered off in a bit of a daze. Too easy.

He found the most secure-looking office in the department, on which was a shiny bronze plaque that read '_Miss Foster_', and easily opened the lock. Finally, he found a use in his adult life for the time Theta had taught him how to pick locks the primitive way, with a hair pin, a paperclip and a bit of plastic. Always wondered where he had gotten that hairpin, in the Academy, though.

He slipped into the office, quickly scanning the room for surveillance devices. Nothing. Confident in herself, this Foster woman. Or maybe she had something to hide from the rest of her employees.

He began looking for anything vaguely interesting. Or relevant, the relevant stuff really wasn't likely to be of interest to him, personally, but still. It was better than tagging along after that self-appointed hero and her failed saving-people complex.

Far from his usual impulsive desire to throw things around and make a mess for someone else to clean up- ok, that had mostly been for Martha's benefit, but still- he left no trace that he had been there as he searched. Some interesting paperwork could be found in the filing cabinets. Most curiously, the fact there were no records of any chemical companies on their outgoing expenses- for a company that existed to sell a wonder-drug, this was suspicious- in fact all the money they had was going into internal computers and telesales. There was a printer/scanner/photocopier-all-in-one... thing... right there in the office, so he just copied what he wanted to steal, and put the originals right back where he found them.

Then the computer. Password? That took a while, but the permutations weren't difficult to figure out. Login name, Foster. Password- after a few dozen wrong guesses and no alarms tripped- turned out to be, oddly enough, mother. And now into the encrypted documents. Very interesting indeed. And totally illegal, but that didn't bother him in the slightest. The Doctor would care, but why should he?

To be honest, this was a perfectly good plan Miss Foster had come up with. Earth was full of morbidly obese morons just gagging for a miracle cure for the symptom of their own psychological or physiological problems, she offered the perfect solution, and everyone's a winner. Except whoever thought up the law against it, apparently. Honestly, he'd not be at all surprised if most Earthlings, even if they knew exactly what the Adipose pills did, would still pay for them anyway!

He located a datacard on the table- one of those ridiculously small things that can hold an entire computer's memory on it, and the dumb apes somehow _don't_ believe it was derived from alien technology- and copied all the relevant information. Those datacards were literally small enough to swallow, the odds of Miss Foster believing it was stolen when it was so easy to lose were infinitesimal.

Anything else of interest? No. Bored now.

Oh, a database. And then he figured out a way to make this entirely boring expedition much more fun.

By the time he was done, every search command in the database led to a small collection of false customer and employee files made up of a combination of Earth swear-words for names, impossible locations for addresses (including the Bermuda Triangle, the North Pole, and Number Eleventy-Six Green Cheese Way, The Moon), and other mildly amusing rubbish.

He had also written a virus to eat up space on the system, but just as he was about to start wrecking something else on the computer, he realised what time it was.

x x x

Less than a minute before he would be punished for being late, the Master zoomed down the staircase, literally leaping down an entire flight at a time. He was _not_ going to allow that self-righteous little bitch hurt him, just because he got distracted by a computer. Again.

And he arrived at the exit just in time, too.

The Doctor actually smiled, "Good to see you're learning." she said brightly, "I really don't like using this, you know." she said, indicating the pendant around her neck which the Master knew controlled his restraint band.

He glared at her, "I found something interesting... well, I'm sure you'll think it's interesting, anyway." he handed her all the paperwork he had stolen from upstairs, and the datacard.

"Ah, that's brilliant." the Doctor said, reading over the paperwork.

The Master rolled his eyes, "I suppose you want to stop them. I do know that this whole thing goes against the Shadow Proclamation, even if I don't particularly care."

"You really are learning, aren't you?" she said, brightly. Of course she was going to stop them.

"Don't patronise me." he snarled, before grinning evilly, "Oh, and they've now got at least three different major system errors on their database, because I got bored after I found that lot." At the Doctor's amused half-glare he shrugged, "You're the one who told me to have fun."

She led the way back to the TARDIS, and proceeded to examine some piece of jewellery she had acquired. He didn't bother to ask where she got it, he could tell it wasn't of Earth origin, so it probably had something to do with her latest little mission.

Instead he managed to occupy the entire couch, once more, without laying down, and resumed reading a book entitled '_The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe_', of which he had already read the previous novel (stolen from the Doctor, and read while they'd still been on the Valiant, no less), and the first half of this one.

If only he could find where the Doctor had hidden the T.V. remote. It had been his own fault, he supposed. She had warned him not to blow up that building, he was aware that he should probably consider himself lucky that she hadn't used the restraint band that time. But damn, he was bored.

"Ohh, fascinating. Seems to be a bio-flip digital stitch, specifically for-"

"No one cares." the Master interrupted, before she could go into detail of how the irrelevant bit of shiney junk worked.

The Doctor actually stopped talking. This was a first, and when he looked up he saw a slightly sad, distant look on her face. He returned his attention to the book, pretending he hadn't seen that.

x x x

Half an hour later.

"Well between analysing this thing, and your bit of espionage- excellent work, by the way-" the Master couldn't help the smug smile that appeared, however briefly, on his face when she said that, "-I think I know exactly how to stop Miss Foster's evil scheme."

"Is it really that evil? I mean, compared to mine?" he asked, looking up from his book.

"No, compared to your evil schemes, this one is positively cute and cuddly." she retorted in total honesty. The Master actually laughed, "But we still need to stop her."

"Who's this 'we', then?" the Master asked, glaring at her.

"You are _not _ staying in the TARDIS. Come on." she said, offering her hand to lead him into more danger.

"Well, I'm not going with you." he said, refusing to even look at the offered hand, "I am not getting into another explosion, fight, or political incident just because you want to play hero."

"Then you can wait _outside_ the TARDIS." she said, grinning brightly. She held the door open, and waited. With a very dramatic sigh, the Master left his book on the couch, and stepped out of the TARDIS into the cold air. Lucky it wasn't raining, really.

She closed and locked the door behind him, and then ruffled his hair- he'd swear she was tempted to say the words 'good boy'- before laughing and running off. Oh how he hated when she did that. He was tempted to give chase, but how could he wreak vengeance on her with this infernal restraint band?

Instead, he sat as impudently as possible on the front of a blue car that was parked not far away, and waited. Give her an hour to play, and if she wasn't back by then, he could go and save her from mortal peril. Again.

x x x

Donna Noble was on her way out of the Adipose building, with a nice armful of potential leads in the latest mystery, and a shiny necklace she'd got as a free gift for loitering in the right place. Just as she had passed the elevators on her way from the call centre, she ran into a stick-insect of a woman, who had the strange notion that denim went well with a proper suit-jacket. And the trainers? Ugh!

"Oh, sorry." the woman said, before doing a double-take, "Wait... Donna?"

"Do I know you?" she asked, edgily. If this random most-likely-employee actually knew her, she could be in trouble.

"Oh... right." the stranger said, sounding embarrassed, before pressing the button to call the elevator. "Very long story, but, um... I'm the Doctor."

"No you're not."

"Yes I am."

"No. I'm pretty sure the Doctor is a bloke."

"Was. Hope to be again. Minor accident. Like I said, long story."

"I don't believe you." Donna said, putting her free hand on one hip, and getting ready to raise her voice.

The woman who claimed to be the Doctor shook her head, "Too many people might try to listen here." she said softly, before gestured to the lift, which had just arrived. Donna gave her the evil eye. The ominous threatening one she had learned from her mother. But then she nodded and stepped into the elevator.

As soon as the doors closed, the woman began to speak, very fast, "You showed up on the TARDIS in your wedding dress, because your fiance had spiked your coffee with huon particles for six months, which he did because he was working for the Empress of the Racnoss. Now do you believe me?" And yes, now Donna really did believe her.

She covered her mouth with her hand, to stop herself from squealing, whether from delight or shock she wasn't sure, "Oh. My. God. You _are_ the Doctor!"

"I told you."

"But how? I mean-?" Donna couldn't quite find the words. The Doctor was an alien, she knew this. A freaky alien with a space-time-ship that's bigger on the inside than on the outside. But she had not expected him to suddenly become a her.

"I'll explain it later. We should probably deal with this threat to the Earth, first. What do you say?"

Donna grinned, "Sure thing, Doctor."

In the end it was so incredibly simple. The Doctor sent some sort of signal, and some half-rhino-half-man aliens showed up and took the company owner away, rather discreetly.

Apparently, however, "This isn't how it usually goes. This is what I like to call a miracle. Because I didn't get into enough trouble to need a real miracle to get out alive." the Doctor explained as they walked away from the building.

"So it's usually just like last time, then." Donna had joked brightly.

"Oh, almost always."

x x x

"Oi! That's my car!" a woman shouted. An angry red-haired woman who just happened to be with the Doctor.

The Master had not moved from his original spot, but now he was looking more than a little bit annoyed. It had been precisely fifty-nine minutes and forty-two seconds, since he'd decided to give the Doctor an hour before he'd follow her. Sometimes he wondered if she was able to know when he thought things like that, and to purposefully work against even his more benign plans. But that was a totally ludicrous idea, really. Not possible.

"Have fun?" he asked coldly, stepping away from the car and brushing imaginary dust off his clothes. He then directed a glare at the woman who had shouted about the primitive vehicle as if it was actually valuable. "Not another stray?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oi, watch it, you!" then she turned to the Doctor, "Who's he, then?"

"Um... long story." the Doctor muttered.

But the Master decided to do his best to try to scare the Doctor's newest pet human, "I'm an evil genius who wants to take over the universe. The lovely Doctor here is holding me prisoner, so I can't kill you all and blow up the Earth."

"When did you ever want to blow up the Earth?" the Doctor asked, her tone half teasing, half incredulous.

"Since I read Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sounds like much more fun when it's described by someone who was obviously intoxicated at the time he wrote it. I get very bored being locked up all the time with no T.V." he added pointedly.

"You're hardly locked up. It's only a neural restraint band. No bars, or anything." the Doctor said, grinning.

"True." the Master said, shrugging nonchalantly, and rubbing his wrist where the silvery band glinted in the light, "So are you going to introduce me to your new pet human?"

"Oi! I'm nobody's pet!"

"Right." the Doctor said, "Donna, this psychopath here likes to be called the Master. I wouldn't address him by that title too often if I were you, his ego does not need the boost." the Master pulled a face at this, and the Doctor grinned at him, "He's from the same planet as I am. 'Master'-" there was a sarcastic and amused tone in that word that made it clear he was anything but the master of her, "-this is Donna Noble. She just helped me deal with the Adipose situation, since you refused to pretend to be useful."

"I found all those files." the Master complained.

"Yes, you did, that's true." the Doctor said simply, before continuing, "She also helped me about a year ago, with the Racnoss thing."

"You're welcome." the Master hissed angrily, "I had their ship blown up, if you recall."

"Not before I drowned the Empress." the Doctor countered.

"What is this, a 'who's the best at genocide' competition?" Donna sniped.

"No competition, she wins." the Master growled.

"Do not bring that up again." the Doctor snapped, her hand moving to the pendant that controlled the restraint band, in a silent warning. The Master backed down, raising his hands defensively. That bloody restraint band really hurt, and he wasn't about to test the Doctor's patience right now.

"You look kinda familiar, y'know." Donna noted, still looking at the Master.

"Amazing how easily people can forget a face." the Master pointed out, smiling a bit too brightly. He had actually been trying to use the Archangel network to stop Donna from recognising him. He really wished it had worked on her.

"He was Prime Minister for a while." the Doctor supplied helpfully, "Part of the whole trying-to-take-over-the-galaxy thing."

"Saxon, right?" Donna asked. "I voted for him. Can't remember why, now. Thought he was dead?"

"That's what I want people to think." the Master said, smirking. Donna shrugged. She clearly trusted the Doctor far too much, easily accepting the fact that the Master was unable to harm her, just because the Doctor had said so. She appeared totally at ease in spite of his obviously evil attitude. He would have to try harder, if he wanted to scare this one.

Finally, Donna turned her attention away from the two Time Lords and to the vehicle the Master had deemed only worthy of existence as a makeshift park bench, "I've been ready for this." Startled by her obscure statement, both of them looked at her as she opened the boot of the car and began to unload a _vast_ amount of luggage.

"She is _not_ coming with us." the Master said suddenly.

"You have no say in the matter." the Doctor retorted.

"I packed ages ago, just in case." Donna was saying, brightly, "Cause I thought, hot weather, cold weather, no weather-"

She looked from one Time Lord to the other for a second, then handed the largest and heaviest suitcase to the Master. He was tempted to deliberately drop it on her foot, but decided it was best not to test the limits of 'causing harm to living beings' that was expressly forbidden as long as he wore the restraint band. Instead he simply glared, and if looks could kill...

"-the Doctor goes anywhere, I've gotta be prepared." Donna continued as if she wasn't being glared at by the homicidal maniac.

She then handed the last piece of luggage to the Doctor, who stared at it in mild shock, "You've got... a hatbox?"

"Planet of the Hats, I'm ready!" Donna said too cheerfully. Maybe she wouldn't be so bad to have around. She'd certainly drive the Doctor insane. That could only be good from his perspective. And she was _still_ prattling, "Do I need injections though, do I? Like when you go to Cambodia, is there any of that? Cos my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and-" finally she noticed the stunned look on the Doctor's face. "You're not saying much."

"I think she's in shock." the Master supplied unhelpfully, grinning as he said it.

"Yeah, well you can shut it and all." Donna snapped, before returning her attention to the Doctor, "I mean it, are you ok?"

"Yeah. It's just." the Doctor seemed at a loss for words, but finally she shook her head, and smiled, "I'd love to have you on board, Donna. I could use a friend." she emphasised that last word with a pointed glare at the Master, who feigned shocked indignity at the insinuation that he was not the sort of companion she needed right now.

"So I can come?" Donna asked hopefully.

"Of course." the Doctor answered, smiling.

Donna's eyes suddenly widened, as if she had just remembered something important, "Car keys."

And she ran off, ignoring the Doctor's confused exclamation of, "What?"

The Master dropped the suitcase rather suddenly, as soon as Donna was too far away to notice, and turned on the Doctor, "I hate you, you know that? I do not want anything to do with that harpy!"

"Too bad." the Doctor said, smiling brightly. She then added, "Oh, I got you a present."

"If it's anything like the last two gifts we exchanged, no thank you." the Master retorted coldly, referring of course to the neural disruptor collar and the restraint band.

"No, I think you'll like this one." the Doctor pulled out what looked very much like an ordinary pen, "I've modified the settings, it'll only manipulate primitive computer and locking systems, several scanning options, and a healing setting."

The Master took the pen warily. When he opened it he saw a faint blue light, and the evidence of much more complicated technology than Earth had a hope of making, especially this compact, "Sonic." he muttered, half-smiling, "A sonic pen?"

The Doctor shrugged, "Miss Foster- also known as Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet, Intergalactic Class- won't be needing it anymore."

The Master genuinely smiled now, and pocketed his new toy, "I suppose I should thank you?"

"You're welcome." the Doctor said, grinning brightly, and picking up a couple of the suitcases, "And now you're going to help me with these. That is, if you ever want a chance of finding the T.V. remote again."

The Master swore under his breath, and reluctantly started helping with the suitcases.

x x x

Donna sauntered into the TARDIS as if she owned the place, grinning brightly at the Doctor, and shooting the Master a wary look, before speaking, "Off we go, then!"

"She's been here before, hasn't she?" the Master asked.

"Yes." the Doctor said, nodding.

"You can tell. No shock and awe at the dimensional displacement."

"Oi, what're you two on about?"

"He was surprised that you weren't surprised that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than the outside." the Doctor explained.

"Oh, that. Yeah, seen it before. Although frankly, you could turn the heat up." Donna noted.

"Good luck with that." the Master sniped, "I've been trying to get her to change the colour scheme for weeks."

"So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?" the Doctor asked brightly.

Donna grinned, "Oh, I know exactly the place."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Which is?"

"Two and a half miles, that way." Donna said, pointing.

The Master did his best to ignore the ludicrously cutesy and generally sickeningly sweet goodbye that Donna bade to some relative or other who was, apparently, mad enough that no one would believe if he talked about a flying blue box. The man in question was also, apparently, intelligent enough not to tell anyone, anyway.

What really mattered to the Master was that he was hoping this woman would drive the Doctor up the wall. It would be fun to watch, and of all the companions of the Doctor he had met in the past, this one seemed the most likely, in his opinion, to be interesting and maybe even entertaining.

x x x


	13. Volcano Day

x x x

**Chapter 13: Volcano Day**

x x x

"Ancient Rome." the Doctor said far too cheerfully, "Well, not to them, obviously. To all intents and purposes, right now, this is brand new Rome."

"Want to be careful here." the Master warned, stepping out behind her, Donna following him, "How many times has your Captain friend claimed to have visited this time?"

"I lost count. But as long as we avoid any orgies we should be fine." she muttered under her breath, so the human harpy couldn't hear, shrugging as if she really couldn't care less.

Donna stared around in amazement for a moment, before finally finding her voice, "Oh my God, it's- it's so Roman! This is fantastic!" She cheered, jumping on the balls of her feet like a hyper child that's just been led into a candy store. "I'm here, in Rome. Donna Noble, in Rome. This is just weird! I mean, everyone here's dead."

"I like that thought." the Master said brightly, earning a glare from the Doctor, "What? It's funny."

"Hold on a minute, that sign over there's in English." Donna said, suddenly confused.

The Master glanced at the sign and muttered, "This planet is the very definition of capitalism, isn't it?" The sign in question was advertising a sale on something or other that he could not possibly be less interested in if he tried.

"Are you having me on? Are we in Epcot?" Donna demanded.

"No, that's the TARDIS translation circuits, just makes it look like English." the Doctor explained, "Speech as well, you're talking Latin right now."

"Actually, I'm speaking Alteran. But they hear Latin, and you hear English." the Master added, unhelpfully. Just to confuse the human that little bit more.

"Since when did you learn Alteran?" the Doctor asked, giving the Master a suspicious look.

"Since I tried to instigate a religious war on their planet." the Master said dismissively, as if it really wasn't that big a deal.

"That was you?" the Doctor asked, staring at him in mild surprise now.

"It's not like it took much effort." he noted too innocently, "They were already at each others throats in all but the literal sense, I just encouraged them."

"So, wait, I'm talking in Latin right now?" Donna asked.

"Well, they're hearing you speak Latin, yes." the Doctor answered.

"Seriously?"

"Uh huh."

"I just said 'seriously' in Latin."

"How can we make this any clearer for you?" the Master sniped.

Donna considered this for a moment, then asked, "What if I said something in actual Latin? Like, '_Veni, vidi, vici_'? My dad said that when he came back from football. If I said 'Veni, vidi, vici' to that lot, what would it sound like?"

The Doctor paused, and considered it for a moment, then shrugged, "I'm not sure. You have to think of difficult questions, don't you?"

"I'm gonna try it." Donna declared, wandering over to a nearby stall which sold more worthless junk.

"They'll probably hear English." the Master muttered to the Doctor, quietly enough for Donna not to hear.

"I know. Let her have her fun." the Doctor replied, grinning.

"Me-no-speak-Celtic. No-can-do-missy." the shopkeeper could be heard saying.

"Welsh." the Doctor muttered.

"I was close enough." the Master said, almost sulking at having got it wrong.

Donna had returned to the two Time Lords, now, "How's he mean, Celtic?"

"Welsh. You sound Welsh. Learn something new every day, don't we." the Doctor answered. She was grinning smugly at the Master as she said it, and he only continued to scowl in response.

"Don't our clothes look a bit odd?" Donna asked, as they began to walk down a narrow street.

"Nah. Ancient Rome, anything goes. It's like Soho, but bigger."

"And with a slightly less offensive smell." the Master added.

"You've been here before then?" Donna asked.

"Oh, ages ago." the Doctor said, dismissively, "Before you ask, that fire had nothing to do with me. Well... a little bit. But I haven't got the chance to look around properly."

"Always showing off." the Master muttered, "I think you're doing it on purpose. I want to blow up something historic, but no, you get all the fun." he stopped, suddenly, and glanced over his shoulder to check the opposite direction, but still not seeing what he was looking for, he asked, "You sure this is the right place? Only I don't see any of the right landmarks." He could tell that it was the right time, the stars said so when he checked, but he could be wrong about the place. It wasn't like he cared enough about the Earth to be certain of exactly where he was on this seismically unstable bit of rock.

"Hm, I was wondering about that." the Doctor said, looking around as well. "Where is everything?" she suddenly turned down a side-street, muttering, distractedly, as if the other two weren't there, or she fully expected them to follow her without questioning or being told to. "Try this way."

"Is he- I mean she- is the Doctor always like this?" Donna asked the Master, under her breath, in a way that showed she hoped the Doctor wouldn't hear.

"He never passed basic temporal astrogation class, that TARDIS is stolen because they wouldn't give him a licence, AND she'd forget where she parked if she wasn't psychically linked to it." he replied, before following the subject of their conversation.

They caught up with the Doctor to find her staring up at a nearby mountain with mild terror in her eyes. Donna started prattling again, "Not an expert, but there's seven hills of Rome, aren't there? How come they've only got one?" However intelligent and observant it was- for a human- the Master still considered it prattling. Especially as he recognised where they were now, just as well as the Doctor did.

It didn't take the rumbling and sudden smoking of said mountain to push the point home for him. Although it did seem to help Donna realise where they were.

"Here we go again!" someone behind them shouted, almost laughing. This was perfectly normal for them, judging by that reaction.

"Wait a minute. One mountain. With smoke. Which makes this-"

"Pompeii." the Doctor said quietly, "We're in Pompeii. And it's volcano day."

"Another explosion which I'm not going to be the cause of." the Master complained, "I don't get to have any fun, anymore."

The Doctor glared at him. She was a hair's breadth away from slapping him, he could see it in her eyes. But instead she turned and ran back the way they came, "Come on, both of you."

x x x

They returned to exactly where they had parked, only to discover a distinct lack of anything blue or police-box-shaped. "You're kidding. You're not telling me the TARDIS has gone?" Donna said, incredulously.

"Okaaaay." the Doctor said, drawing the word out as she was clearly trying to think of what could possibly have happened to the TARDIS.

"Where is it then?" Donna insisted.

"You... told me not to tell you." the Doctor said, seeming confused by the human's apparently innate ability to contradict herself.

"Oi. Don't get clever in Latin." Donna sniped.

"Remind me how many times someone has stolen your TARDIS, again." the Master said, smirking, "And I don't mean including myself."

The Doctor glared at him, then turned rather sharply, and walked over to the stall-holder Donna had spoken to earlier.

After a few moments, Donna asked him, "This happens a lot?"

"I believe so." the Master answered, grinning, "I've personally stolen the Doctor's TARDIS at least a dozen times, that I can clearly remember."

"Seventeen." the Doctor said bluntly, returning, "And I lost count of how many times other people have moved, stolen or otherwise misplaced her."

"Never your fault, of course." the Master added sarcastically.

"Of course." she answered, as if he had been perfectly serious.

"So where is it?" Donna demanded.

"Some guy called Caecilius bought it from that idiot." the Doctor pointed over her shoulder at the stall-holder, "I got directions. Should be simple enough."

"Don't you know better than to say things like that by now?" the Master asked. 'Simple enough'. Did she deliberately _try_ to tempt fate?

"This way." the Doctor said coldly. Sure enough, whatever directions she had been given were perfectly accurate, and they found the right street and villa without any trouble. The lack of trouble, in itself, made the Master suspicious. The Doctor had said one of the phrases on his list of things never to say when you want a plan to go smoothly, so something was bound to happen.

x x x

"Shouldn't we be warning everyone about the volcano?" Donna demanded, as the Doctor led her down the street towards the large villa. "What time does Vesuvius erupt, when's it due?"

The Doctor scowled, concentrating for a moment, then answered, "It's seventy-nine A.D. twenty-third of August, which makes volcano day tomorrow."

"Plenty of time!" Donna said, warming up to the subject, as she stopped in the street to argue her point, "We could get everyone out, easy!"

"Yeah, except we're not going to." the Doctor responded, in a matter-of-fact tone. No malice, but no pity either.

"But that's what you do, you're the Doctor, you save people!" Donna persisted.

"Not this time." the Doctor said, sounding like she really didn't need or want this debate right now, "Pompeii is a fixed point in history, what happens happens, there is no stopping it."

She made to walk on, but Donna stopped her, "Says who?"

"Says history." the Master interrupted, getting a bit annoyed by the shouting. The Doctor gave him a pleading look, as if asking him to explain. "What's the matter, beautiful. Don't want to try to make the human understand the difference between flux and fixed time?"

"Pretty much." she said coldly.

He sighed dramatically, as if he was thoroughly put out by being made to explain this. A totally false impression. He didn't hate this particular human too much, and had no genuine objection to explaining the situation to her. "There are elements of time that cannot be changed. We can sense the difference between what can safely be altered and what must not be, because we are Time Lords. Pompeii must fall, and if you've ever taken a history lesson in your life- very probable, since you knew enough to recognise where we were- you will know that many people will die here, it is fact. It cannot be changed."

"Why not?" Donna demanded, hands on her hips, her entire attitude all but shouting in his face that she was not going to drop this subject easily.

"That's not always clear, if it was we'd be gods." the Master said dismissively, "We sense future probabilities, but we can't always see what will lead to those results. What is clear is that we should not prevent known history from following its course here."

"But why?"

"To change the course of what we know to be recorded history here would cause significantly more devastation than one little volcano could ever aspire to." the Master said coldly.

Donna cringed, "How?"

"All I know for certain about it- and I'm sure the Doctor sees it too- is the simple fact that what could be if history does not run its course is... unpleasant. Terrifying, even. And I don't often admit to fear." he was staring Donna right in the eyes as he said this.

She backed down. Mostly. "But what if you're wrong? Or if we could even save some people? Even one? It'd be a good thing, wouldn't it?"

"Don't ask me about morals, I don't have any." he retorted.

"I'm not sure it's an option, Donna." the Doctor said, not unkindly.

Donna folded her arms, part defensive, but mostly determined. "I'll make it an option, then."

x x x

"So... we speak Latin, they hear English and call it Celtic?" the Master asked, as they were about to enter the villa.

"Yes, why?" the Doctor asked.

"Just double-checking. I wanted to be sure before I said anything."

"Oh, don't speak Latin just to confuse the Romans, please." the Doctor said, laughing. Donna laughed as well.

"Why not?" the Master asked, grinning.

The volcano rumbled again, and the ground shook just as they stepped into the villa. By the time the Master stepped into the atrium, after Donna, he saw that the Doctor had caught some ornament that had clearly fallen during the tremor. She put it back where it must have had fallen from, before turning to the man who had been trying to cross the room in time to catch it, "There you go." she said brightly.

"Thank you, young lady." the man said, glancing at the three of them, "But I'm afraid business is closed for the day. I'm expecting a visitor."

"And we don't count as visitors?" the Master asked, stepping forward. Women may not be looked down on here in the same way they were in the dark ages, but he figured this man was the type to be more likely to be helpful if he took the lead. The Doctor stepped back, next to Donna, accepting this course of action easily enough.

"Who are you?" the man demanded.

"You can call me Dominus."

Donna snorted biting back the urge to laugh. Even the Doctor found it mildly amusing.

"Is that a Celtic name?"

The Master rolled his eyes, and turned to the Doctor, whispering in the only language the TARDIS never translated; Gallifreyan, "Four hundred more years, and that could have been a great joke." Of course, it would take a few very specific history lessons for anyone else to get the joke, which was directly related to his previous choice of alias on Earth. The Doctor snorted, and shook her head at this suggestion.

"Is there something funny about that?" the man asked, confused.

"I'm not Celtic." the Master said bluntly.

"He gets that all the time, though." the Doctor put in helpfully, "That's what was funny."

"And you two are...?" the man insisted, looking to the Doctor and Donna.

"These lovely ladies are Donna-" the Master gestured to the correct person as he said it, "-and Rose." he indicated the Doctor.

The Doctor opened her mouth to protest, but shut it again pretty quickly. No point arguing in front of people they were trying to reacquire valuable personal property from.

"Under normal circumstances, it would be my pleasure to meet you all, however I'm sorry, but I'm not open for trade."

The Doctor tilted her head to one side, but before she could ask, the Master got there first, "And just what is your trade?"

"Marble. Lobus Caecilius. Mining, polishing and design thereof. If you want marble, I'm your man."

"A fine trade." the Master said, turning on the hypnotic charm. The Doctor elbowed him sharply in the ribs, and he shot her a glare, but then rolled his eyes and she felt the sense of defeat from him as he turned back to the man, now without a trace of hypnotism as he spoke, "I'm afraid we are here to deal with the consequences of a crime." Caecilius paled, horrified, but the Master continued, holding his hand up to both prevent the man from denying anything and to calm him at the same time, "Not yours. But I'm afraid that item-" he indicated the TARDIS, "-was stolen by a trader no more than an hour ago."

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Brilliant way of wording it, but perfectly honest. The Doctor admired the tactic, and wondered why she hadn't thought of it. The whole way here, when they hadn't been arguing over temporal flux perception, she had been thinking up stories, while the Master just went and told the truth.

"Oh, I'm appalled!" Caecilius said, horrified, "I spent fifteen sesterce on that!"

"Caveat emptor." the Doctor muttered, smirking faintly. Donna also grinned.

Caecilius only spared her a brief confused look, but didn't have time to say anything before the Master continued to speak. "The culprit has been suitably disciplined." He was smiling slightly, as if he thought listening to the Doctor on a rant was punishment enough, maybe? "And you will be reimbursed for any losses, but this item must be returned to its owner."

"Ah, yes! Of course, of course." Caecilius said, nodding.

"Good riddance." a woman who had been standing near the back of the room noted simply.

"Oh, forgive my manners." Caecilius said, quickly, "Allow me to introduce my good wife, Metella." the woman seemed a little annoyed at all attention being turned to her, especially under the circumstances of what she'd just said.

"A pleasure to meet you." the Master said, nodding to the woman, before turning back to Caecilius, "We just need to check that there isn't any damage, and then we can give you the money." he explained, quite deliberately putting a hand on the shoulder of both Caecilius and Metella, and turning them away from the TARDIS.

The Doctor quickly took out her key and entered the TARDIS, it might take a while, but she was sure to find the correct currency eventually. Small price to pay to get out of Pompeii without any trouble.

x x x

Donna watched the Doctor disappear, and then noticed the young man- probably still a teenager- sitting across the atrium from the rest of them, who had been staring right at the TARDIS when the Doctor entered it.

"What was that?" he asked, pointing at the once again closed TARDIS door.

Donna grinned, and walked over slowly, sniffing the air around the teenager, "Bit much to drink?" she asked innocently.

He turned to scowl up at her, but she smiled right back at him and he started to look confused.

The Master glanced over at the two, but seemed to decide not to interfere, "Rose will only take a minute- or possibly ten- to check that everything is in order."

"But there was a whole big room in there!" the boy shouted, standing up.

"I'm sorry, dear. I do apologise for my son." Metella said to Donna, snatching the goblet of wine away from the boy, and pouring its remaining contents out.

"In the meantime." the Master continued, as if nothing had happened at all, "I do wonder why your business is closed today? All the other shops in the city are operating normally."

"Today we have a very important visitor. Lucius Petrus Dextrus himself, no less." Caecilius declared proudly. The Master seemed slightly startled by the name, as if he'd heard it before, or perhaps it was one of those names that translated into something, like Donna knew her own name meant 'Lady'. Actually, if she remembered right, it might even be Latin, too.

"Everything looks right in there." the Doctor noted, having appeared behind Donna as if out of thin air. Sneaky, that one. She stepped up next to the Master, and Donna only noticed a small bag of what must have been coins change hands between them because she was right behind them.

"Well, then." the Master said brightly, checking how much was in the bag, and handing fifteen small coins to Caecilius. "We apologise for the inconvenience."

"No trouble at all." Metella said brightly. Well, it was more than obvious she didn't like the TARDIS in her atrium.

"Announcing Lucius Petrus Dextrus, Chief Augur of the City Government." a voice called from behind them, startling Donna, who turned to see who it was.

"Lucius. My pleasure, as always." Caecilius said, turning his full attention to the new arrival. An older man, accompanied by what must be a servant- the man who announced his arrival- and two armed guards.

She noticed the Master exchanging a glance with the Doctor for an instant, as if they were silently debating something for only a second. Probably all it takes for super-duper aliens from wherever-they're-from.

Metella had also chosen to ignore her other visitors in favour of this newcomer. The boy, however, was watching the Doctor with undisguised curiosity. "Quintus, pay attention." Metella hissed at him. Oh, but he was paying attention, just not to who his mother wanted him to pay attention to.

"A rare and great honour, sir, for you to come to my house." Caecilius continued eagerly. He held out his hand for Lucius to shake, but the other man rudely refused to take his right hand out from under his cloak.

"Good thing Jack's not here right now." the Doctor whispered to the Master, although Donna just made the words out. Who was this Jack guy, anyway? She'd have to ask sometime.

"The birds are flying north, and the wind is in the west." Lucius said, trying to sound mysterious.

The Master tilted his head to one side, "Change is coming, bringing opportunity?" he whispered to the Doctor, who nodded. Donna grinned. It helped to have Time Lords around, sometimes.

"Quite." Caecilius said, unsure, "Absolutely. That's good, is it?"

"Only the grain of wheat knows where it will grow." Lucius answered.

"For me to know and you not to." the Doctor whispered, trying to look innocent. Donna was suddenly very thankful that they were out of range for the other people in the room to hear them. This might be informative, but it was probably also incredibly rude and irreverent. Not that Donna minded, but Lucius might have taken offence if he'd heard that.

"There now, Metella. Have you ever heard _such _ wisdom?" Caecilius asked, sounding awed, as if anything confusing had to be wisdom beyond their understanding. Shows what he knew, if the two Time Lords were right about their interpretations.

"Never." Metella said, a bit edgily, "It's an honour."

"Pardon me, sir, I have guests, this is Dominus, and his two assistants-" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at the word. At least he hadn't said something that'd annoy Donna, like concubines or servants. "-Rose and Donna."

The Master nodded his head to Lucius, while the Doctor and Donna waved, Donna more nervously.

"A name is but a cloud upon a summer wind." Lucius said dismissively.

"Everything and nothing at all." the Master answered, smirking. Donna didn't get it, but the Doctor seemed to find it amusing.

Lucius' eyes narrowed, he seemed to take the Master's words as a challenge, "But what is hidden by nothing yet still cannot be seen?"

The Master opened his mouth, not making a sound for about a second, looking almost surprised by the answer he had received, but then retorted, "A shadow in the dark, and a scream in the storm." Was it Donna's imagination, or was that made to sound almost threatening? Almost.

Lucius seemed taken aback, "Perhaps. Evidently you are a man of learning."

The Master smiled- more like bared his teeth, it was forced and not at all friendly- but said nothing else. Instead, the Doctor spoke, "We really should be leaving soon."

As if this announcement meant that they were no longer even in the room, Lucius turned back to Caecilius, a questioning expression on his face.

"It's ready, sir." Caecilius informed Lucius, also seeming to ignore the three time travellers.

Donna tried to resist as she was led towards the TARDIS, but had little choice as both Time Lords seemed intent on leaving as soon as possible.

"The moment of revelation." Caecilius declared proudly. And suddenly the Doctor stopped trying to make Donna move. The Master noticed her hesitation, and followed her gaze. Donna turned to look, too, thankful for an opportunity to stay a bit longer. Maybe she'd have time to convince someone to leave town, after all.

What they were staring at looked like a giant circuit board. Made of marble, naturally. That was what Caecilius said he did, after all.

"And here it is!" Caecilius declared, "Exactly as you've specified. It pleases you, sir?"

"As the rain pleases the soil." Lucius answered. At least that one made sense without translation.

"Oh, now that's... different." the Doctor noted, in that tone that seemed to mean it was bad-different. Or maybe just it was advanced and alien... which might mean the same thing, "Who designed that, then?"

"My Lord Lucius was very specific." Caecilius said, seeming very proud of himself for making the unusual creation.

"Where did you get the pattern?" the Doctor persisted, now looking to Lucius.

"On the rain and mist and wind." Lucius answered, trying to be enigmatic. Even Donna could guess he was just being vague rather than telling them anything in his cryptic weirdness. She guessed it meant 'I just dreamed it up'?

"But that looks like a circuit." Donna noted.

"Made of stone." the Doctor agreed. The Master was oddly silent, and staring at the circuit with careful concentration.

"Do you mean you just dreamt that thing up?" Donna asked, putting voice to her previous thought.

"That is my job. As City Augur." Lucius declared.

"What's that, then? Like the mayor?" Donna asked.

The Doctor laughed nervously, "I apologise for my friend, she's not from around here." then she dragged Donna aside, and whispered, "This is an age of official superstition, an Augur is paid by the city to tell the future."

Donna bit back the urge to snort at the stupidity of that system, deciding it was best not to insult their gracious hosts. Even if they believed in something so ridiculous.

x x x

"They're laughing at us." a female voice said from one side. The Master looked up from listening to the Doctor trying to explain archaic customs to the silly human, to see a young woman with dark reddish-brown hair, leaning against a pillar, watching them all. She didn't look healthy at all, pale, in that vampiric sense that looks good on most evil overlords, but somehow not so good on little girls it seems. "Those two women, they mock us with their words. And him." she looked right at the Master, "He thinks us all fools."

Just because it's true, doesn't mean she had to go telling everyone!

"We didn't mean to offend." the Doctor said quickly.

"I'm sorry, my daughter's been consuming the vapours." Metella said, walking over to the younger woman and putting an arm around her protectively.

"By the gods, mother, what have you been doing to her?" the boy, Quintus, demanded.

"Not now, Quintus." Caecilius muttered irritably.

"Yeah but she's sick, just look at her!" Quintus protested.

Lucius, however, stepped forward, "I gather I have a rival in this household. Another with the gift."

"Oh, she's been promised to the Sibylline Sisterhood." Metella said proudly, "They say she has remarkable visions."

Lucius looked indignant, "The prophecies of women are limited and dull, only the menfolk have the capacity for true perception." he said irritably.

Donna puffed up with indignant anger, and said rather snarkily, "I'll tell you where the wind's blowing right now, mate."

A rumble, this time weaker and more distant, drew everyone's attention, and Lucius chose to use it as ammunition, "The Mountain God marks your words. I'd be careful, if I were you."

Now even if there was a god in that mountain, who's to judge whether that was in favour of Donna's remark, or opposed to it? Or even if it was just to knock an ornament off a neighbour's shelf, for that matter? God are spiteful little buggers, he should know, he's met a few, and played at being one more than once.

The Doctor, however, was paying more attention to the sick-looking young woman, Metella's daughter, "Consuming the vapours, you said?" she asked.

"They give me strength." the girl answered.

"It doesn't look like it to me." the Doctor noted.

"Is that your opinion... as a doctor?" the girl asked.

"Excuse me?" the Doctor asked, slightly stunned. The Master was watching intently now. This had just got interesting.

"Doctor, that's your name." the girl said simply.

"How did you know that?" the Doctor asked, staring openly now.

"And you... you call yourself Noble." the girl continued, looking to Donna.

"Now then, Evelina, don't be rude." Metella chided.

The Doctor shook her head, "No, let her talk. Please."

"And you." she looked at the Master for several seconds, "The Master who is a slave. You all come from so far away."

"The female soothsayer is inclined to invent all sorts of vagaries." Lucius interrupted irritably.

"Oh no, she's good." the Master said, frowning at her choice of words, however accurate they may be right now.

"Yeah, Lucius. I reckon you've been out-soothsayed." the Doctor said, much more amused by the situation than the Master was. She seemed scared, as well, though the humans probably didn't see it yet.

"Is that so?" Lucius asked, sounding too smug. And it soon became clear why, "Child of Gallifrey?"

The Doctor turned on him immediately, and now the fear really showed, "What?"

The rumbling from the volcano was back, very low, not causing the ornaments any harm, just enough to be felt, now. And the air felt hotter all of a sudden. The Master looked around uneasily, checking the exits instinctively. And the other people on the room. Only the two seers- and they really must be true seers, unlikely though he thought that concept should be in humans- seemed to pose any threat. The others were too confused and scared to be part of it.

"Strangest of images... your home is lost in fire, is it not?" Lucius asked, still watching the Doctor.

As will yours be, the Master thought, glaring coldly at Lucius.

"Doctor, what are they doing?" Donna asked, seeming just as scared and ready to run away as the Master felt.

"And you, daughter of... London." Lucius continued, now looking at Donna.

"How does he know that?" Donna asked, frightened. The Master wouldn't admit it to save his life, but in that instant he genuinely felt the urge to comfort the scared human, even if he didn't much like her. Only for a fraction of a second, then he mercilessly beat the emotion until it went away.

"This is the gift of Pompeii." Lucius declared, "Every single oracle tells the truth."

"That's impossible." Donna whispered.

"Doctor... she is returning." Lucius said, clearly deciding to prove himself by telling future events, rather than past.

"Who is? Who's she?" the Doctor asked, much more curious than afraid now. How many females did the Doctor know? Too many to be bothered counting. And how many lost? Well, he knew of at least half a dozen for certain.

"And you, daughter of London... there is something on your back." Now that one made no sense at all.

"What's that mean?" Donna whimpered.

"And you, Master of nothing." the Master growled at that mutilation of his name, but didn't interrupt Lucius beyond that, "So quiet now, but soon they will scream." he didn't want to think the obvious explanation for that prediction. Really, it could mean something much more obscure. Just because the drums were quieter than they had been in over half a century (counting Yana's lifetime of seventy-eight), didn't mean that was what he was talking about, did it? Maybe his fear showed, Lucius looked very smug at his reaction.

"Even the words, 'doctor', 'master', they are false. Your real names are hidden." Evelina spoke, whether to compliment or compete with Lucius, it was impossible to tell, "Burning in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself. You are a Lords. Lords of Time."

And she promptly fainted. He wondered how these predictions actually worked. How much energy did they take out of the seer? Lucius seemed in perfect health, still. Well, assuming he actually had a right arm, since he had chosen to ensure no one saw it.

As the Doctor checked on Evelina's health, the Master stared coldly at Lucius, "Do you want to hear them?" he asked, quietly enough for the Doctor not to hear. It was a threat, more than anything else.

Lucius laughed, "You would cause more pain to yourself than to me." and with a wave of his hand to beckon his guards to follow, he left the villa.

The Master stared after him for almost a minute, before turning around to see that only the Doctor remained in the room. The others must have taken the female seer elsewhere to recover, "I want to kill Lucius. Please?" he asked hopefully.

"No." she said coldly.

"How about maiming? Even a little?"

"No."

"He's going to die tomorrow anyway."

"I said no."

"Spoil sport." the Master muttered sulkily.

x x x


	14. Pyrovillia Lost

x x x

**Chapter 14: Pyrovillia Lost**

x x x

The Master sat in the middle of the atrium, staring unseeing at the TARDIS as he tried to figure out what Lucius had meant. Obviously it was the drums, Lucius' reaction to his remark on the subject had proved his worst suspicion true. Unless the seer just knew what he had assumed the prediction had meant? Oh, this train of thought would lead him nowhere.

"Petrus Dextrus." the Doctor muttered, in her best pondering voice. She had been sitting next to him, staring at the hypocaust vent in front of her.

"Stone right hand." the Master answered simply. Lucius was a common name, meaning light, it hardly had any significance to anyone. Like, how many people think of a flower when you hear the names of so many pretty little girls in the twenty-first century named after the stinking things? Rose being the first one to come to mind, obviously.

The Doctor nodded slowly, "Odd name."

"I noticed."

"Who do you think he meant?" the Doctor asked, suddenly, "'She', it's so vague. Half the human race could be called 'she'. And a large portion of the rest of the universe, too."

"Yourself included, at the moment."

"Thank you, because I need to be reminded of that." the Doctor grumbled sarcastically.

"Why don't you change back, then?"

"Don't want to yet." she answered vaguely, clearly wanting to end _that_ interrogation before it began. So he went back to the previous subject.

"How many can you name that are gone, to be able to return?" the Master asked, "The more trouble it would cause them the more likely they are to be the subject of the prediction."

The Doctor didn't answer, she just continued to stare at the hypocaust.

"Romana?" the Master suggested.

"She was on Gallifrey when it burned."

"The Rani?" She had been reported as dead before the Time War's apocalyptic ending. But she was a tricky one, and the odds of this being true were almost on par with the many rumours of the Master's death. And while neither of them could sense the presence of any other Time Lord, in all of time and space, it was still not impossible.

"Oh, I really hope he didn't mean her!"

"Grace?"

"And I hope for your sake, not her." the Doctor said, with a slightly cruel smile. After what the Master had done to Grace, he would be unlikely to survive meeting that woman while he wore the restraint band. And she knew all the ways to poison him, too, having the experience of accidentally killing the Doctor.

"Nyssa?"

"Wouldn't be difficult for her to find me if she felt like it."

"Ace?"

"I don't think she's too fond of me right now."

"Sarah-Jane?"

"I ran into her not long ago, actually."

"Rose?" that wasn't the Master, that was Caecilius, who was now standing in the entrance to the room, and had been addressing the Doctor.

Both Time Lords looked up at him, sharply, but then the Doctor seemed to remember that the Master had been offensive enough to choose that name as an alias for her, and stood up, muttering to the Master as she did so, "Impossible." she then smiled at Caecilius, "Please, call me Doctor."

"Doctor, then." Caecilius said, bemused, "I thought you should know that Evelina is awake and well, now."

The Doctor nodded, "When she said consuming the vapours?"

"Ah, a gift from the god of the mountain." Caecilius explained, "The vapours rise from the hypocaust, here."

"Looks different." she noted, walking over to examine it.

"Oh, yes." Caecilius said, eagerly, "We're very advanced in Pompeii. In Rome, they're still using the old wood-burning furnaces. But we've got hot springs, leading from Vesuvius itself."

After a bit of effort, the Doctor managed pulled away the metal grille on the thing, and looked down. "Who thought of that?" she asked. Bored and curious, the Master wandered to see what she was looking at, but saw nothing of interest.

"The soothsayers." Caecilius answered, "After the great earthquake, seventeen years ago. An awful lot of damage. But we rebuilt."

"Didn't you think of moving away?" the Doctor asked, but then she corrected herself, "No, then again, San Francisco."

"Cardiff. Rigel seven." the Master added, taking the less literal comparisons with similarly devastating potential.

"Shush, you." she ordered dismissively, and he glared but shut up.

Caecilius seemed surprised by this casual exchange, "Is this what Evelina's vision meant, when she called you a slave?"

"Technically, maybe." the Master grumbled.

"He's not my property. More like a hostile guest." the Doctor explained, "He's dangerous. But I can keep him from causing trouble."

"I don't understand. I see no bindings, and you aren't carrying any weapons."

The Doctor smiled, "You don't need to know the details."

But then, a howling sound interrupted the conversation before Caecilius could ask any more questions. It came from below the hypocaust.

"What was that?" she asked.

Caecilius shrugged, "Don't know. Happens all the time. They say the gods of the Underworld are stirring."

"But after the earthquake, let me guess... Is that when the soothsayers started making sense?" the Doctor asked.

The Master looked up at her, curiously. She had clearly thought of a connection, but he would wait for her to explain it before deciding how ridiculous- and most probably true in spite of its lunacy- it was.

"Oh, yes, very much so." Caecilius answered, "I mean, they'd always been, shall we say, imprecise?" very diplomatic way to put it, "But then- the soothsayers, the augurs, the haruspex, all of them- they saw the truth, again and again. It's quite amazing. They can predict crops and rainfall with absolute precision."

"Have they said anything about tomorrow?" she asked.

"No." Caecilius said, surprised by that question, "Why, should they? Why d'you ask?"

The Doctor shook her head, "Just curious. So, the soothsayers, they all consume the vapours?"

"That's how they see." Caecilius answered, nodding.

"So... they're all inhaling this." she pulled out a pinch of rock-dust from inside the hypocaust.

She allowed most of it to drop back into the depths, but some of the dust remained on her finger, and she licked it. The Master had never understood the Doctor's fixation with licking things. It was much more noticeable in this regeneration, he thought, but the fact remained that there were much better ways to find out the composition of suspicious chemicals, without putting them in your mouth. He needed to remember to debate the subject with Captain Jack, sometime, just to spite the Doctor.

"Dust?" Caecilius asked, confused.

"From Vesuvius. They're breathing in the mountain itself."

"I'm telling Jack you licked Vesuvius." the Master said, grinning. "Less than a day before-"

She interrupted him the instant she realised what he was about to say, "Shut. Up." she hissed, glaring at him.

He was happy enough to obey, smirking evilly. She wouldn't be glaring like that if she hadn't already figured out what he'd been going to say anyway. Caecilius remained completely clueless.

x x x

The Master had disappeared off to check that Donna was ok. Or that was what he'd said he was going to do. He probably just wanted to avoid the Doctor's company.

The Doctor, meanwhile, decided that Lucius Petrus Dextrus needed to be investigated. Aside from the highly suspicious name- thought she wasn't entirely sure why it was suspicious yet- there was that marble circuit board to consider. Caecilius wasn't likely to betray a highly prized customer, Metella was too busy looking after Evelina. That only left one potential ally who knew the local area well.

Quintus was easy enough to find. Behaving very much like the spoiled teenager the Master often impersonated, except with a goblet of wine in his hand, he could be found lounging on a couch, pretending that the universe revolved around him and wasn't letting him have any fun.

"Hello, Quintus." she said, standing in the doorway of the room she had found him in.

He looked up and smiled, "Hello, Aphrodite." The Doctor bit her lip and decided not to make the obvious joke there. Obvious to her, anyway.

"I'd prefer if you didn't call me that." she said pointedly. Entirely aside from the fact she didn't like being compared to a god at the best of times, Aphrodite was a parallel in Greek mythology to a deity of another religion, whose name she knew was borrowed by an old acquaintance. Not a friendly one, either.

"Would you prefer Venus?" Quintus joked, making the supreme effort- for a teenager, anyway- of being bothered to sit up and set his drink down while he spoke.

"How about you call me the Doctor, like everyone else does?"

"I liked Rose better." he muttered, standing up and smirking at her.

"If you insist." she said, with an exasperated sigh. Maybe it was a bad idea to ask this kid for help, after all. Maybe she could wait until Evelina was better and ask Metella for help? No, volcano tomorrow, waiting equals bad. "I was wondering if you could help me with something."

She sincerely hoped that he wouldn't behave as badly as she was anticipating. Between Captain Jack and the Master, she had had quite enough of the obscene jokes aimed her way to last at least another two lifetimes. "Anything you want."

"I need to know where this Lucius Petrus Dextrus lives."

The boy's enthusiasm suddenly disappeared, "Why?"

"Because I think he's up to something, and I want to make sure it's not going to hurt anyone."

And as soon as that was explained, Quintus looked interested once more, curious even, "Why'd you think that?"

"Because of that marble tile." she decided on using a mystical explanation, as the boy would probably accept it more easily than a technological one, "The engravings are dangerous runes, I've seen them before, and I need to know if he has more of them."

"He told my father it was the only one."

"And you assume he told the truth?" the Doctor asked, raising one eyebrow as if to suggest this assumption wasn't very smart.

"Good point." he said, nodding, "Alright, I'll help. But what's in it for me?" As he asked this he eyed her up quite blatantly.

"You need to learn subtlety, Quintus." she retorted, with a laugh, "I'm way out of your league."

In spite of this, however, she decided to play a little trick on him, and with a bit of sleight of hand, it easily looked like she'd pulled a coin out of her cleavage. "This good enough?" she asked, holding the coin out to him.

Obviously, judging by the grin that spread across his face, it was.

x x x

As they approached Lucius' villa, Quintus asked warily, "You won't tell my dad about this, will you?"

"Only if you don't tell mine that I'm out at night with a handsome young man like you." she said with a bright smile, before climbing up onto a ledge, and into the villa. She didn't need to be telepathic to know he was watching her more intently than was really necessary. Especially when she leaned out the window to call down, "Pass me the torch."

Once she had a light-source, she began to look around the room that she found herself in. Looked perfectly normal, really. Then she heard Quintus stumble as he entered the room.

"Shh. Don't you know anything about breaking into somewhere you shouldn't?" she asked in a whisper.

He shrugged too innocently, not answering. Which meant he probably did know, and judging by his behaviour so far, it was most likely from sneaking into girls' rooms without being caught by parents.

She slowly scanned the room with the torchlight, stopping on a rather conspicuous drape against one wall. Usually, drapes covered windows. Or secrets. She pulled it back, and saw the circuit tile that Caecilius had made, along with five more circuits. Six in total.

"I was right. I hate when I'm right about things like this." the Doctor muttered.

Quintus gave her an odd look, "What's it for?"

"The future, Doctor." she turned around, to see Lucius standing in the doorway, flanked by two armed guards. He didn't seem at all surprised to see her there. In fact, he had probably been waiting for her, given that he was supposed to be able to see the future so accurately. "We are building the future. As dictated by the gods."

"Oh yeah? Which ones?" she asked immediately.

"The mountain gods." Lucius answered.

"Vesuvius? I don't suppose they've told you anything about tomorrow?"

"There is nothing unusual about tomorrow, Doctor." Lucius said calmly, "But you are a very intelligent... person."

She raised an eyebrow at his deliberately non-gender-specific choice of word, and smirked faintly, "I certainly am."

"You must know what our great work is." it wasn't a question. It was almost an order.

She looked back at the circuit boards, "Well they're not in order, are they?" she asked, innocently, "But if you moved that one there, and that one over there." she merely pointed, rather than moving the things. They looked heavy. She tilted her head to one side, reading another circuit from a different angle, and then looked back to Lucius once more, "Looks like an energy converter to me. But for what?"

"You tell me, Doctor." Lucius retorted coldly.

"Something you don't know, oh great augur?" she asked, mockingly.

"A seed may float on the breeze in any direction." he answered.

"So they didn't feel you needed to know." she said, nodding sagely, "Well I've no idea either." she shrugged. It was true enough. Energy converters are a basic computer code, used to command a bit of machinery. There was no machinery here to tell her what was being converted into what, so she didn't know the answer from the evidence provided. "It's much more fun not starting out with all the answers, isn't it? You must get awfully bored knowing everything before it happens, hmm? Seriously, though, who gave you these instructions?"

"I think you've babbled enough." Lucius growled.

"Really? This is me being meek and quiet. You should hear when I really start talking." she said, grinning. Quintus snorted with laughter at that remark, but quickly hid his amusement. Easy to do when terrified, and he seemed to be. "Joking aside, I can help you, honestly, just tell me."

"You insult the gods." Lucius snarled, "There can be only one sentence. At arms!"

"Why do people who're plotting great things always refuse to let me help them?" she whined, thinking about the Master specifically. She meant the word great in the sense of magnitude, rather than good, and somehow she was sure Lucius' plans were not very well-intentioned, either.

x x x

The Master was sitting on the floor in the corner of an empty room, staring at a wall, when Donna found him. "You ok?" she asked, warily. Something about him was unsettling, more so right now than before.

"Relatively."

"What're you doing?" Donna insisted. He was staring at thin air, tapping his fingers on the tile floor in a repeating pattern she'd never heard in her life, but somehow found familiar.

"Thinking."

"Isn't that dangerous, or something?" Donna asked, smiling faintly.

He smiled brightly, and finally looked up at her. There was a truly terrifying, manic glint in his eyes, which made her take a step back, "Incredibly dangerous."

Just then, the ground began to shake, a persistent beating like footsteps of a giant.

"I didn't do it." the Master said quickly, standing up. And looking around for the source of the sound. It definitely wasn't the volcano, that was a constant rumble, this was something else.

Donna rushed out into the atrium, and the Master followed her, clearly distracted from whatever evil scheme he had been plotting. Probably for the best, that. It turned out everyone in the household had gathered here, and it didn't take more than two seconds for the Doctor to rush in from outside.

"Figures." she heard the Master mutter, "Trouble always follows the Doctor."

"Everyone get out!" the Doctor shouted, but no one listened. They were too busy wondering what was going on to consider the chance it could be dangerous.

"What's going on, Doctor?" Donna asked, rushing over to meet her.

"Something's following us. You all need to get out, now!" the Doctor answered.

But then the ground shook even more viciously, and a creature forced its way up from beneath the ground. Like a big firey rock-monster.

"The gods are with us." Evelina declared, in awe.

Didn't look very divine to Donna. The sort of thing she'd always figured was more hellish than godly. Yep, fire-monsters equals bad, right?

"Water!" the Doctor shouted, "Everyone, get water, now!"

Quintus and most of the servants- Donna was still not liking that idea much, servants- ran to obey, and Donna followed them. She heard some idiot behind her saying, "Blessed are we to see the gods." and then screaming. Yep, idiot. Definitely not the sort of 'god' you really want round your house for a spot of tea, was it?

x x x

The Doctor stepped forward, "Talk to me, that's all I want! Talk to me, tell me what you want. Don't hurt these people, they've done nothing against you!"

The Master thought that it looked distinctly like images he'd seen of a Pyro. Admittedly a very offensive, borderline racist term for the species, but easier to remember, he wasn't sure if they were called Pyrophile, Pyrofel, Pyrovile? Did it even matter?

The Master edged away from the creature, watching it carefully. He'd never seen anything like it outside of holograms and books. He didn't like it, whatever it was called. He was close to the exit when he heard a muffled scream and caught a glimpse of red cloth disappear from the doorway.

Stay and watch genius here try to deal with the fire-breathing monster, or find out what the scream was about? No question, get as far away as possible from the fiend as quickly as possible. The Master stepped back out of the villa, still able to see inside, but now out of the direct line of fire. He quickly looked around, and saw three figures in red robes dragging an indignant Donna Noble around a corner.

"Talk to me! I'm the Doctor, just tell me who you are." the Doctor demanded, but the creature ignored her, stalking forward threateningly.

The teenage son of the family, and one servant returned carrying water. It was the boy who slew the monster, by throwing the water over it, causing it to crash to the ground, shattering into harmless bits of rock. A fleeting memory of a movie he'd watched out of sheer boredom on the Valiant, once, came to mind. Some old hag in green makeup screaming about melting. It seemed funny in his mind, right now.

"What was it?" Caecilius asked, horrified and still shaking with fear.

"Carapace of stone, held together by internal magma. Put out the fire, cool it off, and it's harmless. Technically not dead, could be re-ignited, but that would take phenomenal amounts of energy."

"Doctor, or whatever your name is, you bring bad luck on this house." Metella said angrily.

"I thought your son was brilliant there, aren't you gonna thank him?" the Doctor asked, successfully distracting Metella and her husband from the Doctor, who turned to look back at the creature, muttering to herself, prattling inanely no doubt, but then she looked around, and made for the door. "Donna!"

All she found there was the Master, staring at her coldly. It was a sardonic 'do you ever shut up?' look, as he pointed down the street in the direction Donna had been taken.

"You didn't follow her?" she demanded, turning to run down the street before the Master could answer.

He caught up with her in a few strides, and answered anyway, "They were Sibylline. Isn't their temple right over there?"

Sure enough, the red banners around the entrance were a dead giveaway. The Doctor led the way into temple, and the Master muttered something about suicidal tendencies.

He stayed out of sight as the Doctor entered the main chamber where Donna's voice could be heard ranting determinedly.

"This prattling voice will cease forever!" an unfamiliar woman shouted, trying to sound all officious and pompous.

"You should be so lucky." the Doctor announced, giving away any vague semblance of an element of surprise while she was at it.

"You want prattling? Wait till this one gets going." the Master put in brightly, indicating the Doctor as he said it. She actually smiled, almost proud of this insult, when she heard it.

"No man is allowed to enter the Temple of Sibyl!" one of the Sibylline declared. Judging by her voice it was the same woman who had spoken earlier. She must be the leader of this little execution party, then. She even had a very fancy and shiny dagger in her hand, too.

"Good thing I'm not human, then, isn't it?" the Master said, grinning evilly.

"You lie!" the leader, henceforth to be known as Lead Bitch, accused.

"Want to bet?" he asked, walking forward, as the Doctor circled around the room towards Donna, looking as if she thought she belonged there. All attention was on the Master, anyway, so she was safe to do whatever she wanted. He stopped right in front of the Lead Bitch, and grabbed her by the hand that held the dagger, pulling it towards him, "Go on, try me." he hissed, holding the tip of the blade over his left heart.

While it wasn't technically a bluff, he really hoped she wouldn't call him on that. He didn't like dying, it always hurt, and he wanted even less to waste a regeneration. But the fact remained that he really could afford it if he had no choice.

The Lead Bitch hesitated, and tried to pull her hand away from him, "Release me!" she snarled, almost shrieked, and when he let her go she dropped the dagger, and clutched at her wrist, "Your hand is like ice!"

"Bit of an exaggeration." the Doctor noted brightly. She was now leaning over where Donna was tied down to a big stone slab, "You alright, Donna?"

"Oh, never better." Donna snapped sarcastically.

"Nice toga." the Doctor continued.

"You want one?"

"Purple's not my colour." she said dismissively.

"How about the ropes?"

"I'll take those." the Master offered brightly.

"In your dreams!" the Doctor snapped, using the sonic screwdriver to free Donna.

"Already happened." he retorted, grinning.

"What magic is this?" the Lead Bitch demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the Master asked coldly.

But then another voice, a hoarse but authoritative voice, called out from behind the veil to one side of the room, "Show me these intruders!"

All the red-robed women turned as one to face the source of this voice, and knelt down before it. Except the Lead Bitch, who seemed to disagree with this demand, "High Priestess, the strangers would defile us."

"Let me see." the High Priestess demanded. "These two are different. They carry starlight in their wake."

The Doctor slowly approached the veil, Donna right behind her, and asked, "Oh, very perceptive. Where do these words of wisdom come from?"

The Master gave the Lead Bitch one more evil glare, then walked over to stand next to the Doctor, with his arms folded in that way that managed to look both like he thinks he owns the place and like a spoiled brat at the same time. He knew damned well the effect it gave, and half the time when he used this gesture, it was on purpose.

"The gods whisper to me." the High Priestess declared, proudly.

"They've done far more than that." the Doctor noted, "Might I beg audience? Look upon the High Priestess?"

Beg? Since when did the Doctor ever need to beg? They didn't need permission to deal with this bunch of arrogant little girls, if they felt inclined to take the veil down themselves.

"Keep your pet in check." the High Priestess informed the Doctor coldly, "His thoughts are unnecessary."

The Doctor shot him a surprised look, but the Master shrugged, "I was calculating the violent alternative to your attempt at negotiation."

"He's not going to harm you." the Doctor said to the High Priestess.

Then the curtains parted, and the being behind the veil was revealed. She was petrified, in the literal sense of turning to stone, for she showed no sign of fear at all. How she managed to move or speak at all was a wonder in itself.

"Oh, my God." Donna said, horrified, "What's happened to you?"

"The heavens have blessed me." the High Priestess declared.

"Yes, because everyone has ambitions to be turned into a statue." the Master snarked.

"Silence your pet." the High Priestess ordered.

The Doctor glanced at the Master with a warning look, that simply said 'you're not helping', then turned back to the being that might once have been human, "May I?" She asked, and when the High Priestess nodded the Doctor stepped forward and touched her hand. It took all his willpower to prevent the obvious and highly offensive thought from crossing his mind, lest the High Priestess hear it. "Does it hurt?" the Doctor asked.

"It is necessary." the High Priestess answered.

"Who told you that?"

"The voices." Never healthy to listen to voices in your head, even the Master knew that, in spite of- because of?- the fact he'd ignored such advice in the past.

"Is that what's gonna happen to Evelina?" Donna asked, before turning to face the other sisters of the temple, "Is this what's gonna happen to all of you?"

"The blessings are manifold." the Lead Bitch informed her, showing that her arm was also partially petrified.

"They're stone." Donna whispered, horrified.

"Exactly." the Doctor agreed, turning to face Donna and the Master, "The people of Pompeii are turning to stone BEFORE the volcano erupts. But why?"

"This word, this image in your mind." the High Priestess asked, "This volcano... what is that?"

"More to the point, why don't you know about it? Who are you?" the Doctor demanded, turning to face her again.

"High Priestess of the Sibylline."

"No, I'm talking to the creature inside you." the Doctor snapped, "The thing that's seeding itself into a human body, in the dust, in the lungs, taking over the flesh and turning it into... what?"

"Your knowledge... is impossible." the High Priestess said in horror.

"You learn not to use that word around the Doctor, after about five minutes." the Master pointed out.

"Can't you read my mind?" the Doctor asked, "I demand you tell me who you are!"

The High Priestess looked like she was having a fit, shaking as her voice began to echo, "We... are... awakening."

"The voice of the gods!" the Lead Bitch declared, as the sisters began to chant and grovel. Easily impressed.

"Identify yourself!" the Doctor demanded, "Planet of origin. Galactic coordinates. Species designation according to the universal ratification of the Shadow Proclamation." And there it was, always invoking a law she had no right to enforce.

"We... are... rising." the High Priestess continued.

"Tell... me... your name!" the Doctor shouted.

"Pyrovile." it answered. Right, he knew it was something that sounded like that.

"What's a Pyrovile?" Donna demanded.

"That's a Pyrovile, growing inside her." the Doctor answered quickly, "She's only half-turned, though."

"Our friend at the villa was a fully grown Pyrovile." the Master continued, deciding it best not to offend the creature in its own temple when they were outnumbered, even if he did want to use the insulting abbreviation for it.

"And the breath of a Pyrovile will incinerate you, Doctor." the High Priestess shouted.

"Do you have any idea how many people have tried to kill this one?" the Master asked her, laughing.

The Doctor rolled her eyes, "Gloat later." she snapped at him, before pulling out a water pistol. "I warn you, I'm armed! You two, get that grille open."

"What for?" Donna demanded, even as she and the Master moved to obey the instruction.

"Why else?" the Master whispered to Donna with a sardonic grin, "Escape route."

"Why are the Pyrovile on Earth?" the Doctor demanded, as the Master helped Donna remove the grille from the hypocaust.

"We fell from the heavens." the High Priestess declared "We fell so far and so fast, we were rendered into dust."

"And that was when, seventeen years ago?" the Doctor continued.

"We have slept beneath for thousands of years."

"So you were woken by that earthquake seventeen years ago." the Doctor said, as if this was an undeniable fact based on the evidence. Really, it was. "Now you're using human bodies to restore yourselves. Where did the psychic powers come from, then?"

The instant the grille was out of the way Donna shouted, "Got it!" for the Doctor to hear.

Without waiting for her to give the order, the Master jumped down into the hypocaust, and just managed to hear the Doctor shout for Donna to do the same before he hit the ground. It was very hot, down here. Fire literally burning on the stone ground in places, and he moved a few steps away to allow Donna and the Doctor to follow.

These caverns must run throughout the entire city. It was beautiful, in the way of the classic Earth interpretation of hell. Fire and brimstone, he kind of liked it... until the piercing voice of Donna Noble interrupted his musing, "You fought her off... with a water pistol. I bloody love you!"

"This way." the Doctor said, passing the Master, and leading them through the caves.

"Where are we going now?" Donna demanded.

"Into the volcano." the Doctor answered.

"No way." Donna cried, horrified.

"You do know what time it is, Doctor?" the Master pointed out coldly. It was less than half an hour before Vesuvius was due to erupt. And she was suggesting they go _into_ the volcano itself?

"I'm aware of that." the Doctor said coldly, hesitating slightly, a frown on her face.

The Master noticed when she stopped breathing, enabling her respiratory bypass system, and he caught up to her quickly, "Are you all right?" he asked, touching her shoulder with one hand. He could sense that she was uncomfortable, but not much more than that.

She shook her head slightly, "Sulphur and Pyrovile essence, feel like I'm going to be sick." she said, shrugging him off and walking on ahead of them.

Donna glanced from one Time Lord to the other, "It doesn't smell _that_ bad." she informed the Master, frowning, "Or is this another alien thing?"

"The Pyro dust is quite offensive to my senses, too... and I have a higher tolerance than most of my species." he said, shrugging, and followed the Doctor.

"What's he mean by that?" Donna asked, directing the question to the Doctor, as she followed the two Time Lords.

"If it disgusts sane beings, it doesn't bother him as much." the Doctor answered.

Donna scowled as she followed them, muttering about possible alternate meanings for nausea. The Master tried to pretend he didn't hear her, as they ran headfirst towards certain death.

"But if it's aliens setting off the volcano, doesn't that make it all right, for you to stop it?" Donna asked, as they caught up with the Doctor.

"It's still part of history." the Doctor retorted.

"But I'm history to you." Donna noted, "You saved me, in two-thousand-eight, you saved us all. Why's that different?"

"You remember what we talked about yesterday?" the Master asked coldly.

Donna glared, but then changed her tactic, "How many people died?"

"Donna, please don't." the Doctor said quietly.

"Twenty thousand." the Master answered for her.

"Is that what you can see, both of you?" Donna asked, in shock, "All twenty thousand? And you think that's all right, do you?"

"I've done worse." the Master put in unhelpfully.

Before the Doctor could answer for herself, however, a screeching howl echoed through the caves, "They know we're here. Come on!" the Doctor said quickly, grabbing Donna's arm and pulling her along. The Master glanced over his shoulder to see if anything was quite that close yet, and was grateful to see it was not, before following the others.

After a few minutes, they found themselves in a vast cavern, flames rising from parts of the floor, and many Pyrovile roaming through the area.

"We're in the heart of Vesuvius. Right inside the mountain." the Doctor whispered.

"There's tons of them." Donna answered, her voice just as low.

The Doctor pulled out a small telescope from her pocket, and looked across the cavern. The Master saw that whatever she was looking at stood out, but that was about it at this distance.

"Doctor, you better hurry up and think of something, Rocky four's on its way." Donna muttered, beginning to panic.

"That's how they arrived." the Doctor concluded, "Or what's left of it. Looks pretty small, but there could be more buried up there."

"But why do they need a volcano?" Donna whispered, "Maybe... it erupts, and they launch themselves back into space or something?"

"Oh, I think it's worse than that." the Doctor said, drawing out the last word in that ominous way that implied she knew exactly what was going on and wished (or hoped) she had got it wrong.

"How could it be worse?" Donna demanded. The creature that seemed to have pursued them through the caves howled again, louder, closer.

"They said, '_we are rising_'." the Master noted.

"Doesn't necessarily mean into space, does it?" the Doctor pointed out.

"To power?" he asked. She nodded slowly.

"Heathens! Defilers!" the Master looked up to see Lucius standing on a higher ledge on the other side of the cavern, pointing right at them. "They would desecrate your temple, My Lord Gods!"

'I could show you proper desecration if you wanted, fool.' he thought, deliberately projecting a mental picture of the damage he could do to them if he wasn't restrained properly, as he smirked at the human. Lucius took a half-step back, clearly able to see what the Master was thinking.

"Come on!" the Doctor said, hitting the Master sharply on the arm to tell him to stop playing mind-games with the seer, before standing up and climbing down from the ledge they had been failing to hide behind.

"We can't go in!" Donna protested, following the Doctor, regardless.

"Well we can't go back." the Doctor noted, then she turned and starting to run across the cavern. They did not need to be told twice to follow her. Less than five minutes to live, anyway, no chance of out-running the explosion, even if they survived the Pyros. How did he always manage to get dragged into this sort of mess, when the Doctor was around?

Lucius' voice echoed through the cavern as he shouted, "Crush them! Burn them!"

And a particularly large Pyrovile stepped in their way, looming ominously. The Doctor stopped running just in time to avoid getting burned by mere proximity to the creature. She quickly pulled out the water pistol again, and used it on the creature.

The limited amount of water the pathetic little toy contained didn't kill it, but it did manage to stun it long enough for them to run past. She led them up to the escape pod, prison ship, whatever the hell it was, but hesitated outside the entrance as Lucius decided to gloat.

"There is nowhere to run, Doctor-" he laughed as he said the next word, "-'_Master_' and daughter of London."

'Oh, so I'm a joke to you, now? Well I'm very happy to know you're about to die in, oh, about three and a half minutes time.'

"One little question." the Doctor said, quickly, "I might beg the wisdom of the gods before we perish? Once this new race of creatures is complete, then what?"

"My masters will follow the example of Rome itself." Lucius boasted, "An almighty empire, bestriding the whole of civilization."

"But if you've crashed, and you've got all this technology, why don't you just go home?" Donna asked. For an irrational human she somehow managed to be the voice of sanity on this occasion.

"The Heaven of Pyrovillia is gone." Lucius answered.

"Gone? How'd that happen? Where's it gone?"

"It was taken." Lucius answered, "Pyrovillia is lost. But there is heat enough in this world for a new species to rise."

"Yeah, I should warn you, it's seventy percent water out there." the Doctor noted.

"Water can boil. And everything will burn, Doctor."

"Then the whole planet _is _ at stake." she said flatly, "Thank you. That's all I needed to know." she turned and entered the transport vessel, pushing Donna in before her, and calling back to the Master, "Come on."

x x x

Once they were inside the transport vessel, the Doctor sealed the door with her sonic screwdriver, and turned to examine the control systems. "Could we be any more trapped?" Donna asked.

It was getting noticeably hotter, one of the Pyrovile was probably trying to melt them from outside. Whatever they had hidden in must be pretty fire-proof for them to still be alive if that was the case.

"Bit hot in here." Donna muttered.

"Cold TARDIS starting to look appealing now?" the Master asked her with a smirk. It was forced. According to historic record from far more reliable sources than the memory of earthlings, they had about two minutes to live.

"The energy converter takes the lava, uses the power to create a fusion matrix, which welds Pyrovile to human." the Doctor explained, to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately, she had a captive audience right now, "Now it's complete, they can convert millions."

And suddenly it clicked in the Master's mind. The Doctor had already known- even if she hadn't wanted to accept it- probably since the conversation with the High Priestess. Now he understood as well. The Pyrovile were planning to take over the Earth, and if they were using the lava as a power source then Vesuvius wasn't going to erupt if the Pyrovile had their way. He was staring at the Doctor now with undisguised shock.

"But can't you change it? With these controls?" Donna asked.

"Of course I can, but don't you see? That's why the soothsayers can't see the volcano. There _is_ no volcano. Vesuvius is never going to erupt. The Pyrovile are stealing all its power, and they'll use it to take over the world."

"But... you can change it back?" Donna asked warily.

The Doctor nodded, distractedly, still not quite wanting to accept the situation, "I can invert the system, set off the volcano, and blow them up, yes. But... that's the choice, Donna. It's Pompeii or the world."

"Oh, my God." Donna whispered. She understood it, she just didn't seem to want to believe it.

"Doctor." the Master said, carefully. He was afraid of her reaction to so much as asking, and he knew that fact showed in his voice, but when would he ever get an opportunity like this again? Especially if they died today. "Please." He really wanted to blow something up, and something this spectacularly historical would only make it better.

She looked right at him for a second, then glanced at Donna. Donna scowled, "Pompeii or the world, right? Has to be done, doesn't it?"

"And you don't want to be the one to press the button, do you, Doctor?" the Master noted, leaning over her shoulder and speaking softly now, his tone becoming almost seductive, "You never did."

The Doctor scowled, and started manipulating the controls, changing the settings on the power converter, to reverse the process. She didn't answer him as she worked, but Donna decided to ask a relatively important question. An intelligent one, even, when you consider the situation. "But the Pyrovile are made of rocks, maybe they can't be blown up."

"Vesuvius explodes with the force of twenty-four nuclear bombs." the Doctor said, her tone matter-of-fact, she hated the situation but didn't want to show how much it was hurting her to make this choice, "Nothing can survive it. Certainly not us."

"Never mind us." Donna whispered.

The Doctor glanced at her, to see she really meant that, then looked up at the Master, as if asking his opinion on their inevitable death. He smiled, shrugging slightly, "If you've got to die anyway, best to go out with a bang."

"If we push this lever, then it's over." the Doctor said. She turned to stare at the lever as if it was the bane of her existence, for an interminable second, before adding in a horrified whisper, "Twenty-thousand people."

"Do you want me to beg, Doctor?" the Master asked, leaning close enough now that she would feel his breath on her neck, "Because I will."

She turned her head sharply to look up at him again, stared right into his eyes and saw the fact that he really meant it. With amazement, probably at the idea that he really would beg her for anything, she stepped to the side, until she was leaning back against the door, watching him. Her eyes darted to the lever, and back to his face, making it obvious that she was conceding this to him.

How long ago it seemed that he had last done something so wonderfully bloodthirsty. If he wasn't a Time Lord, and hence acutely aware of the passage of time, he would have difficulty believing it had only been a few months since he had ordered the Toclafane to descend on the Earth. It felt like an eternity.

He grinned at the thought of all the pain this would cause, and stepped forward, to rest his hand on the stone lever that would end the lives of twenty-thousand people. If he paused to think about it, he might consider just how inappropriate it was to feel this much pleasure at the thought of it, but he was too busy enjoying that feeling to care.

After a second, trying to sense the future pain he would cause, before he died to do it- specifically picturing Lucius' face screaming as he burned, as the clearest image of all that potential death- he gleefully pushed down on the lever.

And then his world became nothing but fire and agony.

x x x


	15. Time Agents

x x x

**Chapter 15: Time Agents**

x x x

They were thrown in all directions, as the transport vessel they had hidden in was shot into the air by the force of the volcano. Well, the fact they weren't instantaneously vaporised suggested it was probably an escape pod.

When they landed, the Doctor opened the door, and commented on this fact, but Donna had stayed back. When the Doctor looked around she saw why. The Master was on the ground, writhing in pain.

"Oh no. No no no no no, I'm an idiot!" the Doctor shouted, and couldn't help the thought that had he been coherent at the moment the Master would eagerly have agreed.

"What's wrong with him?" Donna asked, as the Doctor knelt next to him and checked his right wrist. The restraint band was glowing blindingly bright.

"I forgot about this." she muttered, placing her hand over the device, and concentrating. Not wilfully causing harm to living beings was like the restraint band's Prime Directive, it couldn't be overwritten, even by whomever wore the control. It was possible for an order to be given to allow the wearer of the band to cause harm, or even kill, but it had to be done in advance. Once it was active like this it couldn't be stopped or removed. She could postpone the punishment, but not indefinitely. An hour at most, and that's what she did, focusing on the control and stopping it from hurting him for now.

"What the-?" the Master asked, sitting up suddenly, and looking around, "We survived?"

"Yes." the Doctor said, smiling sadly, "I'm sorry, that was my fault." she pointed to the restraint band, which was still glowing, "I was only able to postpone the pain, I'm so sorry, Master."

He shook his head, "I should have remembered it too. But I thought I wouldn't live to feel it."

He was clearly still in shock from the pain. He'd felt lower levels of the restraint band before, but he'd never been foolish enough to kill even one person since she'd activated it, let alone... twenty-thousand, "You're going to feel its maximum setting for weeks." she whispered.

"What's going on here?" Donna asked, "Shouldn't we be running for our lives?"

"Yes. Yes we should." the Master said, picking himself up and dusting off his suit. The Doctor didn't argue, instead she turned and started running back to Pompeii, to find the TARDIS.

x x x

Weeks of agony. Certainly not an appealing prospect, but it was better in his opinion than the death- however glorious- that he had expected for setting off a live volcano from within. It certainly was a sobering thought, though. Impending doom in a way he'd never felt before. Any pain or torment in his past had never been anticipated. One hour, that was all he had before it would start again.

The Master followed the Doctor and Donna, much more calmly than either of them. In fact, considering the wild panic in the streets, it felt completely wrong, even to him, that he should be so relaxed about it.

The ash falling from the sky didn't even faze him, nor did Donna's desperate pleas to the people who were far too panicked to listen to her. She begged them to run for the hills, for the safety of the high ground, but no one took any notice. The Doctor eventually calmed her, and dragged her onward towards the villa where the TARDIS was waiting.

He idly wondered if the TARDIS had brought them here on purpose. The Doctor certainly wasn't foolish enough to come to Pompeii on this day, of her own volition. A slight deviation of their course threw them into the middle of a danger they were meant to become part of. It was most likely deliberate, really. Too bad the TARDIS counted as a living thing, or he'd go and find himself a sledge-hammer at their next stop.

Finally, they entered the villa, and the Doctor headed straight for the TARDIS, ignoring the cowering family.

"Gods save us, Doctor!" Caecilius shouted.

She glanced back at the family, who had helped them so much in the last twenty-four hours. Without the sheer dumb luck of meeting these people, the Pyrovile would be taking over the Earth right about now. It would have made his own attempt at world domination a thousand times more troublesome, really.

The Master stood in the doorway, watching, scowling. What difference would these four people make to history, anyway? A few seconds less pain to himself, that was all he really considered, as the Doctor turned away and entered the TARDIS.

Donna shrieked after her, "No! Doctor you can't!" Her motivation for protesting was purely moral, as if she genuinely believed these four humans actually mattered, somehow. Still, he didn't really care why she wanted to help, what mattered to him was that she wanted the same thing that he did, right now.

"Go after her, Donna." he said calmly, walking over to the family and leaning against the wall next to them, arms folded, allowing himself to look perfectly at ease in the midst of all this chaos and death. He knew the Doctor would not leave him behind, and even if she might, Donna- especially that infernal voice of hers- was a force of nature all to herself.

Donna stared at him, but he just smiled back at her. Finally, as the TARDIS' engines began to power up, making noises to say it was about to leave, she turned and ran to it, disappearing inside less than a second before the TARDIS itself disappeared from Pompeii.

"You... stayed behind?" Caecilius asked, surprised.

"She'll be back." the Master said simply. That's the thing about having a favourite nemesis for over a thousand years (whatever the Doctor may say about her age), you get to know them far too well.

Sure enough, barely a second passed before the TARDIS rematerialised.

The Master smirked- a forced and cold smirk that existed purely to infuriate the Doctor- and stood up straighter as the Doctor stepped out, "You are completely impossible, you know that?" she asked him.

"Donna's better at that than me, I'm sure." he noted. Normally he would sound infuriatingly cheerful when making snide remarks like that, but right now he just did not feel like it.

"Come with us." the Doctor said, turning to the terrified family. She stepped back, disappearing into the TARDIS, and the Master helped them stand up before following them inside.

Once they were all inside the TARDIS, the Doctor quickly set about working on the control console, ignoring their guests for the time being.

Caecilius was staring around in wonder. Yes, it's bigger on the inside, we know, get over it already, you dumb apes! But then the human had to go and ask the most infuriating question, "Are you gods?"

"No." the Master answered through gritted teeth. How he would love to accept the suggestion- compared to humanity, he may as well be!- but he was incredibly aware of the restraint band right now, and claiming to be God- or a god- was on the list of things he would receive even more pain for.

A second later they had landed once more, and the Doctor led them all out onto a hill overlooking Pompeii. The devastation was even more spectacular from this view, but somehow it failed to do anything to lift the Master's spirits.

He wandered over to the edge of a steeper drop, and sat down there, just staring at it. This was the first time in a very long time that he had failed to find any joy in watching the suffering of others. In fact, he only recalled being so disgusted by such things once before, and that was so long ago now it was a vague memory at best.

Quintus sat next to him. He could distantly hear the Doctor talking to the rest of the family, but didn't listen to her words. He also didn't react to Quintus' presence immediately. Not until the boy spoke, "Do you think anyone else got out?"

"Not unless they were smart enough to leave town before it happened." the Master said bluntly. Funnily enough, when he glanced at the boy he saw a faint smile flicker on his face for an instant, "What?"

"Just someone I met a few days ago at the thermopolium." he said distantly. The tone was one of admiration, as if whoever he'd met was particularly interesting. "Gave me some pointers on picking up girls."

"If his name was Jack Harkness..."

"Yes, actually." Quintus said, surprised. The Master laughed, genuinely amused by this, which earned him glares from everyone else present, "How do you know him?"

"You do not want to know."

"Right." the boy smiled, clearly having come to the wrong conclusion there, which meant he'd at least spoken to Jack for more than five minutes.

The Master shook his head, and suddenly all illusion of cheerfulness left him. It had been funny, but not enough to detract from how he felt about the consequences to his personal wellbeing of what he had done here.

He did notice when Quintus left to join the rest of his family, though he didn't react to it. Caecilius was inventing the word volcano, as the Doctor moved to stand behind the Master, "We should leave." she said softly.

He nodded slowly, and stood up to follow the Doctor and Donna, into the TARDIS.

x x x

They had left Earth, and were now within the Vortex between times and places. Nowhere, nowhen, and everywhere in every time at once. It was a safe point, for them. No one else had the technology to remain in the Vortex for more than the nanosecond it took to step from one time and place to another.

The Master had willingly followed the Doctor into the medical bay, and she was currently in the process of tying him down to a bed there.

"What's all this for, anyway?" Donna asked, watching tentatively from the doorway.

"I don't want him to hurt himself. It's going to be bad enough without causing physical injury as well." the Doctor said bluntly. She was surprised at how cooperative the Master was being about it. Usually he would fight tooth and nail against anyone attempting to restrain him like this.

She saw the Master close his eyes, frowning, "Ten seconds." he whispered, as she finished securing the last of the physical restraints. He had been counting down the hour he had before the restraint band resumed his punishment. She turned and started to prepare some chemicals on a table. They were pain relief and sedatives, to keep him from feeling the worst of it. She didn't believe he deserved this, not really. On this level, it seemed more like torture than punishment, especially as she had allowed him to press the button in the first place. It was her own fault for not putting that permission into words, for the restraint band to recognise.

Before she could finish, he started screaming, and she saw Donna flinch, "He did the right thing, why's he getting punished for it?" Donna asked, staring in horror.

'Besides the fact he enjoyed it far too much? Because I'm an idiot, that's why.' "The restraint band he wears is designed to discourage violence." the Doctor answered, scowling as she continued to work, "Deliberately causing harm to any living being, without the express permission of whoever wears the control- in this case, me- will result in severe pain for... usually two to three seconds, on a lower setting. Wiping out an entire city... he'll be like this for weeks. It's all my fault, I should have told him to push that lever, then it wouldn't have done this to him."

Donna stared in horror, as the Master managed to make words out of the screaming, "It burns! Please, make it stop!"

"Can't you do something?" Donna asked weakly.

"I am doing something, it'll take a minute." the Doctor answered, frowning. Every scream was hurting her to hear it.

"Doctor!" he screamed, and she looked at him, sharply, before quickly resuming her work preparing the sedative. She tried to ignore him for several more seconds as she worked, but then he shouted out again, "Please, Theta, make it stop!"

"Donna, maybe you should leave. Now." the Doctor said, through gritted teeth, making the suggestion sound like an outright order. In reality, that was exactly what it was. She did _not_ need a curious human listening to this.

Donna hesitated for a moment, but as the screaming continued she quickly backed away, out of the door, allowing it to close behind her.

Good thing, too. In the next twenty-three seconds it took her to complete the preparations, the Master had called out to her by her real name, as well. Twice.

She hooked up the sedatives to a machine that would allow only a small amount to be infused into his bloodstream per hour. Once it kicked in it would keep him unconscious for a week. Then she injected the painkiller in one dose, as a short-term solution until the sedative took effect.

After a few seconds, he stopped screaming, slowly began to relax, and finally opened his eyes again. Slowly he turned to look at her, clearly unsure what to say or think.

"I'm sorry." she whispered, looking anywhere but at his eyes.

"I feel strange." he said distantly.

"Very powerful painkiller, I could probably rip out one of your hearts right now and you wouldn't feel it." she smiled sadly, "Not that I have any inclination to try."

"Not in the literal sense, anyway." he muttered. That made her look him in the eyes, only to see him smile at her, "Was Donna right?" he asked suddenly.

"About what?" the Doctor asked, turning away from him again.

"Don't play dumb with me, Theta, I know you too well." the Master said, the weakness in his voice indicating that the sedative was beginning to work already.

The Doctor smiled faintly, "I've no idea what you're talking about." she said, adjusting the drip on the sedative, to increase the dose for a minute, and hopefully end this line of questioning.

She saw him blink furiously, trying to fight it, but then he shook his head slowly, closing his eyes as he asked, "Do you hear that?" his voice was distant, now, as if he wasn't all there.

She smiled, "If it sounds a little bit like a TARDIS appearing in the room, then it's probably the sedative taking effect."

He laughed, "It's good, it drowns out the drums."

"You hate this, don't you?" she asked, smiling faintly, "You're completely defenceless, right now."

"Please, shut up." he whispered, before his eyes flickered closed. He was unconscious.

She frowned, and stared at him for a few seconds more, to make sure he wasn't faking it. Then she shook her head and started to prepare the medbay for the next few weeks. More sedatives and painkillers, security camera focused specifically on him, and an alarm to warn her if there was any change to his state of health. She could _not_ be too paranoid here, he was still a threat to her and to Donna, but she didn't want him to suffer for her mistake. That being said, she didn't intend to waste two or three weeks doing nothing but watching him sleep.

Eventually, about an hour later, she left the medbay. Donna was waiting in the control room, "He's alright, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. he just needs to be kept sedated." she said, not looking at Donna.

"That screaming... it was like he was being murdered."

"No." the Doctor said, quite firmly, "It's Arcadian technology, it's designed _not_ to kill. It's meant to try to rehabilitate criminals, and it's really not meant to be used on Time Lords because it's too weak, we can adapt to the lower settings given time." This, she knew from experience, though any attempts to extract an explanation on how she knew would result in a sudden change of the subject. "The people who designed it never expected one of us to turn out so bad." she smiled weakly at that thought. No one had expected the infamously pacifistic and non-interfering Time Lords to ever produce such a monster.

"What did he actually do to deserve wearing that thing, then?" Donna demanded.

"Oh, lots of things. Most recently, he enslaved the Earth." she was trying to sound cheerful, but she knew it wasn't working well. She did not like to think too much on most of the things the Master had done in his past, and hated talking about them even more.

"When did that happen?" Donna demanded.

"Ah... about a year before you found me at the Adipose thing." the Doctor answered, "Relatively, from your perspective. For me it's only been a few weeks."

"No, y'see, I think I would have noticed."

"Yeah, I'm sure you did, too." the Doctor said, trying not to think about whether or not Donna was one of the ten percent of the population who didn't even know what hit them at the beginning of that reign of terror, "Before I reversed time so only a few people remembered the three months he ruled the world."

"Right." Donna said, drawing out the word for almost two seconds, "Y'know what, I don't really think I wanna know."

x x x

The Master woke from a strange nightmare. He had often had dreams of war, conquest, and death. His nightmares would involve the Time War. But this was different. Very different. He could not explain it coherently if he'd tried. Shadows and fire, blood and metal. No logical pattern, only death and screaming. Sometimes it was his own voice.

Then reality found its way slowly into his brain, and he remembered that he probably had been screaming. His throat hurt. In fact, his whole body hurt in a way he had never felt before. It wasn't real pain, just an unfamiliar echo. He had been sedated, so he hadn't felt the pain itself, but his body still ached as if he had.

Very slowly, as his entire being screamed for him to allow himself to melt back into unconsciousness, he opened his eyes and scanned the room. The Doctor was sitting in a corner, watching him with a faint smile. "You know, for being a Time Lord, you're amazingly incapable of adhering to any sort of schedule. I expected you to be awake two hours and seventeen minutes ago."

"You should have told me that before you sedated me." he snarked right back, knowing perfectly well that would not have helped in the slightest. In fact, if he'd known it would have kept her waiting, he'd have deliberately tried to remain unconscious for as long as possible just to spite her.

She smiled, and he got the feeling she knew exactly what he would have done with that knowledge. Slowly, deliberately taking her time about it, he was sure, she stood up and walked over to him. "How're you feeling?" she asked as she began to untie him.

"I've felt worse." he said, watching. She really was enjoying having him tied up like this far too much, in his opinion. Then again, he probably had that coming, after the way he'd behaved on the Valiant. It didn't make him any more patient about this, however, and as soon as she'd freed one hand he untied his other hand himself. "What did I miss, then?" he asked once he was able to stand again.

"Donna doesn't like ice planets, and we freed an entire species from enslavement." the Doctor summarised quite efficiently.

"That's informative." he muttered sulkily.

"We also went to a couple of other worlds, but nothing interesting happened."

"You mean no one tried to kill you, right?"

"Right."

"You should have waited for me, I'd have fixed that." the Master noted, smirking a bit too brightly. He could hear the drums again, and after three weeks of nothingness they felt eager for blood.

"How, exactly?" she retorted, returning the smirk perfectly.

He scowled at her, knowing well enough that it would be very difficult for him to orchestrate any attempt to kill the Doctor while he wore the restraint band. Even if he wanted her dead, which he didn't. He shrugged and wandered out of the medbay. She followed him.

"You're looking better." Donna pointed out. She was sitting on his couch- _his couch!_ It was his, now, damnit!- in the control room. He shot her a glare, but said nothing. "Fine, don't talk to me."

"I'd prefer it if _you_ didn't talk to _me_." the Master snarked, before turning to watch as the Doctor entered the room and started pressing buttons on the control console. "Where are we going?"

"Earth."

"Oh, no." he muttered, sulking, and leaning against one of the support pillars, since Donna had shown no inclination to leave the couch.

"Forty-nine-ninety-nine." the Doctor pointed out, smiling.

"Any particular reason?" the Master asked, no longer so annoyed by their destination. It was the twenty-first century he didn't want to go back to. Too many humans who might recognise him as Harold Saxon.

"I need parts for repairs. I figured Donna might like a bit of sight-seeing around New New York. Only two 'New's this millennium. And-" she drew that word out a bit, "-there's supposed to be a big party. We are landing on December thirty-first."

"You hope." the Master sniped, a deliberate jab at her TARDIS piloting abilities.

The TARDIS stopped shaking, and the Doctor smugly pointed to the readout on the console. '_New New York; Sol 3; 4999-12-31; 1329_.' The Master glared at it, and was absolutely certain the TARDIS had only allowed the Doctor to find the right date to purposefully spite his own remark against her.

"Lucky." he grumbled.

x x x

Donna had chosen to stay in the TARDIS, claiming she wanted to get ready for the party that night. In spite of bringing her own quite large collection of clothing, she had managed to wheedled the location of the TARDIS' wardrobe out of the Doctor, so the odds were that would take her all day.

The instant the Master stepped out of the TARDIS, he laughed. "Oh, they're all idiots!" he cheered brightly.

The Doctor closed her eyes, and tried to sense what he was talking about. Almost immediately, she picked up the familiar rhythm of the Archangel signal. Almost three thousand years had passed, they had updated the technology, but never bothered to overwrite the basic corruption of the system's programming. This was what you get for introducing something so advanced to humans, it stays around for a lot longer before becoming obsolete.

The Doctor led the way down a normal- for this century- street. It was unnaturally clean and tidy, compared to its twenty-first century counterparts. It still held the same air as New York had, but it felt safer, cleaner and brighter.

It was mid-winter, but the sun beamed down on them from overhead, making warm coats completely unnecessary. Not that that stopped the Master from wearing that black thing with red lining she was sure he'd tried to copy from her third life. She seriously contemplated stealing that coat, when she changed back... but it certainly wouldn't fit her in her current form, so she would wait for now.

Global warming was a myth- at least, the twenty-first century theory of humans being the cause of it was a myth, live in the decline of an ice age and you will start to notice the weather getting warmer- but localised weather control was a very real resource in this time. A white Christmas was guaranteed, summer vacations were never ruined by rain, and it would be a warm, cloudless night for the New Year's party, she was certain.

Eventually, the Master stopped walking, and she turned to see why. "I want more books." he said bluntly, pointing to the book store they were walking past, "You still haven't given me back the T.V. remote, you know."

She smiled brightly. She only owned twelve fiction books that the Master would have been able to find (she was _very_ good at hiding things, though), and he had already read through them all. "All right, but meet me back at the TARDIS in an hour." she handed him a credit chip. These were basically like credit cards, except smaller. Instead of merely containing account numbers for whoever you were borrowing money from, they contained actual digital currency, you needed to top them up from a bank terminal. Much harder to steal from, really, if you weren't foolish enough to keep all your money on one chip.

And so the Master disappeared into the book store. She hoped he wouldn't find anything that would give him any evil ideas. Then again, the last evil overlord he'd read about had received nothing but venomous criticism for pure stupidity, so she wasn't too worried.

It didn't take long, before she found a computer store- this was what she had been looking for- and proceeded to search for exactly the components she required. Using Earth technology from any era would be a poor substitute for what could have been found on her homeworld, but it would have to do. She really needed new circuit boards for the inertial sensors, power transfer conduits for the temporal stabilisers, and she figured she'd pick up a bunch more junk as well, for spare parts.

As she browsed the computer parts, she noticed something unusual on the edge of her senses. She kept her eyes on the items she had been looking at, still genuinely considering them while another part of her mind scanned the new presence. They were human- two of them- but there was a temporal disturbance around them. Time travellers. Not Donna, she would have recognised Donna's emotional aura, and was certain she'd have heard her voice by now as well if it had been her.

A brief glance in their direction indicated military training, judging by their posture and the coldness of their emotions. She'd seen enough of the sort to recognise it easily enough. Two men, probably in their mid-twenties. It was quite likely that they were Time Agents. The Agency didn't exist yet, but that didn't stop them travelling to the past. One of them was looking at what may have been a scanning device in his hand. She immediately- instinctively- put up her mental shields. They didn't seem to have noticed her.

She quickly picked up the items she had intended to buy, and went to pay for them. She did her best not to draw attention to herself. Her left hand slipped into her pocket, and fingered the TARDIS key there, trying to tap into Archangel for extra protection.

The Time Agency was not a pleasant organisation. It was a perfect example of misuse of government authority that any twenty-first century conspiracy theorist would absolutely love to hear about. They showed no concern for sentient life, common decency, or the laws of temporal physics. The number of times the Time Lords had intervened to prevent paradoxes at the hands of the Agency, it was a miracle that they had survived for almost half a century before being shut down. She certainly did not want to have to deal with them right now.

She left the shop without any further incident, but as soon as she was around the corner, someone grabbed her from behind, a hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming, and a weapon- it felt like a gun- was pressed to her neck. She felt a searing electric pain- a stun-gun, then- and the world went blank.

x x x

The Master was just returning to the TARDIS with a bag full of books. While the TARDIS had an extensive library, the fiction section left much to be desired. He figured Lord of the Rings might keep him busy for a while, and he hoped by the time he was done with that, he would have the T.V. remote back.

When he entered the TARDIS the control room was empty, and he knew he'd get in trouble if the Doctor found him here unsupervised. It wasn't that he couldn't deal with the Doctor's anger, he just didn't want to be bothered with it, it was easier to obey her than to listen to her ranting. Donna yelling would be worse, but still.

And on the subject of Donna, he was pretty sure she was in here somewhere, probably still in the wardrobe. He idly wondered if the human would ever find her way out of that room, or if she'd end up in Narnia. Fictional or not, it was an amusing thought.

He dumped the pile of books just inside the TARDIS door, and quickly went outside again. Almost as soon as he left the TARDIS, he felt a slight stinging from the restraint band. A warning, not real pain. He frowned, "What did I do now?" he muttered, "Are the books alive? Did I hurt them?" He knew that wasn't possible. Books are made from dead trees, and by nature cannot in any way be considered alive.

He tried to reach out with his mind to sense the Doctor, to find where she was so he could go ask her what had happened. But he couldn't sense her nearby. Alright, that explained why the restraint band had given him a warning. She'd left the area, and he had to try to find her or he'd get punished. Wonderful. Just what he _didn't_ want to deal with right now. Or ever, for that matter.

He was just trying to think of how he could possibly use the TARDIS to track the Doctor without touching any of the controls, when he heard a familiar voice behind him, "Long time no see, Master." The tone implied casual acquaintance, no reverence in the name, but no fear or loathing either.

The Master looked around to see Captain Jack Harkness, leaning against the side of the TARDIS, arms folded, completely relaxed, as if he belonged there. "How long, exactly?" the Master asked warily, edging away from the Captain.

How had he managed to conceal himself? Time itself rippled around him, and had been a glaringly obvious side-effect of his immortal curse- well, obvious to Time Lords, anyway- but he had somehow made it impossible to notice. In fact according to the Master's senses he could pass easily for a perfectly normal human. He had to really look for it to recognise that the curse was still present.

"Hmm, about seventeen thousand years. Give or take a century."

The Master stared at him for several seconds, "Seventeen _thousand_ years?" he asked, amazed.

He had met Time Lords who had lived to that age, though that was very unlikely to happen to either himself or the Doctor, given their unfortunate habit of finding themselves in life-threatening situations, with or without each other's help. The Master himself was only twelve hundred and thirteen. The Doctor was older, though he wasn't sure by how much, due to the fact that their personal timelines had never really been in synch since they left the Academy.

Still, he had never seriously considered the possibility of this freak's 'immortality' holding out for so long. Sure, it made sense, but he suddenly realised that he was incredibly jealous. Not that he'd ever admit that to the freak.

"Unless you count almost two thousand years of being buried alive... which I don't." the Captain added dismissively.

"Did I do that?" the Master asked, grinning at the thought.

"You wish." the Captain said, shaking his head and slowly stepped forward, "I did come here for a reason, Master." and once again the way he said the name managed to disappoint. It was almost as if he felt pity as he said it. It made the Master very uncomfortable, actually. "The Doctor has been taken prisoner by Time Agents. He told me about it, a long time ago. One little problem with the story I heard was that he implied there were three Agents, but I know they only ever work in pairs."

"So?" the Master asked, defensively.

"So I want this back." he answered, as he began to unfasten the Vortex manipulator from his left wrist.

"You trust me?" the Master asked incredulously, as the immortal held the device out to him. He didn't take it, not before he got an answer.

"Yes." the Captain said, nodding. His face gave nothing away. There was no way to tell what he was really thinking.

"Why?"

"Can't tell you that." he said with a faint smile. It didn't reach his eyes.

The Master took the device, and looked at it, warily. It had a tracking program active, which told him the Doctor was in this same city, in the year five-thousand-fifty-three. It would have been very annoying to have had to wait to rescue her, and Donna would most likely have been even more put out by it, so this certainly would help.

"I should probably thank you." the Master said, frowning at the Vortex manipulator. He didn't want to look at the freak right now. Didn't want to show a sign of weakness, even if it was genuine gratitude. In fact, that word should have been 'especially', rather than 'even'.

"Just bring it back." he said, sounding genuinely bemused now, "I'll be at the party tonight."

He knew that the freak was just doing this to help the Doctor, but there was something about the look in his eyes, the way he spoke. He was being very careful _not_ to give something away. It had to be something directly affecting the Master, why else would he care if the Captain let anything slip? He was suddenly reminded of Lucius' prophecy, and quickly decided to go and do something instead of thinking about _that_.

"I'll see you then." the Master said, nodding. He put on the Vortex manipulator, and pressed the button that would send him to when and where the Doctor was.

x x x

The Doctor woke up in a plain white room. Nothing here except for the chair she was tied to. Very effectively, she quickly discovered. She carefully opened her mind to the world around her, and could tell she was still on Earth, but its place in the stars had shifted. Fifty- fifty-four?- years. Maybe. Either fifty-four years or two-hundred-million and fifty-four. Difficult to tell.

The entire building echoed with temporal displacement. Which meant this had to be the Time Agency. So that would narrow her guess down to fifty-four years. There was no way that this could be a good thing.

"Finally, it's awake." a man said as two of them entered the room. They were the same two that she had seen in the shop. And very rude, apparently, too. 'It'? Really? That's offensive.

The Doctor slowly looked around to smile at them. She was angry, but chose not to show it. '_It never hurts to be bright and cheerful, helps you makes friends. And it can scare the hell out of your enemies, too._' The last part of that was actually something the Master had added when she had spoken the first line during the second week after she had captured him. Perfectly true, though.

"Hello, boys." she said brightly, "Lovely place you've got here. Bit minimalist, but still nice. For future reference, though, I prefer handcuffs to ropes. Pink fluffy handcuffs, if you've got them." Now that last line was just for effect, although she really would prefer handcuffs, because she wound find it significantly easier to pick the locks than to try to cut ropes. So the last handcuffs she'd encountered, on the Oodsphere, had been a bit more effective than usual, still didn't change her overall opinion on the subject.

"What are you?" the man who hadn't spoken yet asked. He was slightly shorter, looked a lot meaner (in a weaselish kind of way), and had short brown hair. The other one was more rugged looking, with a black ponytail, and he looked like he would be pretty tough in a physical fight.

So unless they introduced themselves, she would call them Weasel and Ponytail. At least in her head. She knew she could be rude, but calling them by those invented names out loud would probably only make this situation worse.

"What do you mean, what am I?" she asked, feigning confusion. The usual question was 'who', but this one would actually be easier to answer if she felt inclined to do so. However, she did not feel like answering to these petty thugs with time-travel.

"You're not human, and you have a temporal displacement reading that's off the charts on all our sensors." Weasel said bluntly, "Now explain."

"What do you think I am, some sort of time traveller?" she asked, with as much incredulity in her voice as possible, as if this was all a big joke.

"It's not cooperating." Ponytail noted, in a threatening tone that really sounded like he was just looking for an excuse to engage in physical violence.

"You know, if you're going to talk about me like I'm not here, I'd prefer if you used the correct pronouns." the Doctor noted, still sounding bright and cheerful. Most probably annoyingly so, but that was kind of the idea.

"Funny, the DNA scans were inconclusive on that point." Weasel said smugly. DNA scans? Not good, not good, not good.

"And we also want to know how it's possible to have over ten million years worth of temporal displacement on you?" Ponytail added.

"Ten million years?" she asked doing her best to sound completely confused. Time Lords could scan for far more than that, but she was trying to sound naieve. And she must have well over two hundred trillion, having gone to the end of the universe and back, and that's only counting when she's been in the last six months of her own personal timeline.

"Our scanners don't go beyond that." Weasel said, scowling, "But you managed to actually BREAK the scanner, so in theory it had to be a _lot_ more than that."

"And what would an alien like you be doing on Earth?" Ponytail asked.

"You think I'm an alien?" she asked, still trying to feign cluelessness.

"DNA scan." Weasel pointed out.

She rolled her eyes, "You two are boring." then her eyes brightened as she looked back at them, "I came to Earth to get to know the locals, is that really a bad thing?" there was a flirtatious tone in her voice now, "There's supposed to be a big party tonight, new millennium, I was gonna have fun, that's all."

"Then what were these for?" Ponytail demanded, holding up the bag of spare parts the Doctor had bought.

"I was shopping." she replied, feigning confusion.

"There are one hundred and thirty-two ways these items could be used to make weapons, three of which could destroy an entire city." Ponytail continued. Of course, they would know. Oh, how she hated the Agency. But she knew more than they did, and decided to prove it now.

"One hundred seventy-six, actually." she said coldly, "Eighteen of which might take out a whole continent, and one that could do for the entire planet. But honestly, those are just new parts for my ship." she protested, "Why would I want to attack Earth?"

"Lots of reasons." Weasel said vaguely, "Plenty of things claiming to know how to time-travel have tried it in the last few thousand years."

"World domination is always popular." Ponytail pointed out.

"Exterminating the human race." Weasel added. Oh, he did not just say the magic word, did he? He did. She hoped that was an accident on his part, she really did.

"For fun." Ponytail added.

"Now that's the best reason of them all." another voice said from the doorway. The Doctor had never been more grateful to hear the Master's voice than she was right now.

"How did you get in here?" Weasel demanded, "And who the hell are you?"

"I am the Master. And you will obey me." He stepped forward, directly meeting each man's eyes in turn, and then spoke calmly, in that hypnotic tone that the Doctor really should loathe, yet somehow never did, "You never met this woman. You don't remember how you got back to this time, but you did attend the New Year's party, and there was a large amount of alcohol involved. Now sleep."

And both humans collapsed, unconscious, to the ground. Ponytail started snoring.

The Master then turned to face the Doctor smirking, "Now this is interesting." he noted, slowly walking over to the chair she was tied to, "You're completely defenceless, right now."

"This would be the point where you ought to untie me." she pointed out, her tone slightly sharper than she'd intended.

He slowly circled around to stand behind her, ignoring that suggestion. Instead, he carefully ran his fingertips over the chain of the control for his restraint band, and when it failed to shock him, he unfastened it from around her neck, and held it up, staring at the pendant intently. "Mine now." he noted brightly. "You see, I had no choice but to come here, because of this. But now, I don't have to free you if I don't want to."

Now, that was not a pleasant prospect. If he did leave her here, she would be trapped. And she knew enough about the Agency to know they would not be particularly kind to her. These two had already proved as much in the first few minutes of conversation, without even getting to the point of beginning a proper interrogation.

But after a few seconds of ominous silence, during which she could not see what he was doing, she felt him untie her wrists. She stood quickly, and when she tried to recover the control pendant, he didn't stop her. He could have escaped, left her here at the 'mercy' of the Agency. But he didn't. "Why?" she asked, surprised.

He didn't answer, instead he was staring out a window, as if looking for something she hadn't sensed. Well, she had been a bit preoccupied with trying to figure out a way to escape if he'd taken this opportunity to flee, as she'd been so certain he would.

"How did you get here?" she asked, trying to snap him out of whatever he was staring at. She tried to sense it herself, as he turned to face her, but couldn't find anything unusual. Either he was imagining things, or whatever it was had gone.

"I took this from a time agent in forty-nine-ninety-nine." he said, holding up his left arm so she could see a Vortex manipulator on his wrist. Then his face brightened into a too-cheerful smile, and he asked, "Did you miss me?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, "Cute. Now, we need to find and destroy their records of me, because Weasel, there-" she indicated which human she was talking about as she said his new nickname, "-mentioned DNA scans."

"Already done." the Master said, smirking, "I don't want these under-evolved primates to have samples of Time Lord DNA any more than you do."

"Alright, then." the Doctor said, nodding and taking his word for it. She could sense that he had told the truth, he chose not to hide anything as he said it, probably because he knew her well enough to believe that she would assume he was lying if he didn't show his honesty. It was true that humans learning about Time Lord DNA could not be good for anyone of that species, and the Master knew that. "Let's get out of here."

He glanced down at the Vortex manipulator, pressed a couple of buttons, then nodded and held out his left arm. She grabbed the offensive piece of technology, and braced herself for the discomfort of this particular method of transportation.

x x x

To the Master, travelling by a Vortex manipulator was not at all unpleasant. For the instant and eternity that they were between times, he could swear he heard a soft melody, the drums silenced. And the lights danced beautifully, blinding but somehow divine. If you believed in that sort of concept. He really didn't, but that was still the best word in the English language for it.

"Oh, I hate those things." the Doctor muttered, immediately letting go of the Vortex manipulator and shaking her head to dispel obvious discomfort. They were now standing right next to the TARDIS. It was dark already, after ten at night, but still on the right date.

So it seemed he was the only one who wasn't offended by this method of travelling. He'd heard Captain Jack making rude remarks during his torture, which insinuated that using this piece of technology hurt more than some of the things the Master had done to him. Now the Doctor expressed distaste for it, as well. He wondered idly if he actually liked the sensation of travelling that way for the same reason that he heard the drums, but decided it was a question for another time.

"Now give me that." she ordered, holding out her hand, and staring straight at the Vortex manipulator.

"No." he said, shaking his head, "I need to return it to the agent I took it from, or he might miss it." he pulled down the sleeve of his coat, to hide the object in question. Technically, he hadn't lied. So far, he had carefully worded the truth to be easily misinterpreted, he had 'taken' the object, not stolen. Jack had once been a time agent, so that was also not an outright lie. She would know if he lied.

"There you two are!" Donna shouted, causing both to jump before turning to face her. Her voice just had that effect. She was standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, wearing a very nice dark blue dress, which managed to be both form-fitting and flattering at the same time (which the Master considered a miracle on this particular human, but he knew better than to actually _say_ that). "I've been waiting here for _ages!_ There I was sitting in that glorified phone box of yours, and I find you two out here, making out!"

"We were not-!" the Master started indignantly, but the Doctor interrupted.

"We just ran into a bit of trouble, nothing unusual."

"Right. Trouble. If I was talking to anyone but you, Doctor, I'd not buy it." Donna said, smirking, "What'd I miss, then?"

"Kidnapping, industrial sabotage, and a nice little chat about world domination." the Master offered. Technically all true, even if it was relatively out of context.

"Alright, I don't really need to know." Donna admitted, though whether or not she believed a word he'd just said was debatable, "Are we going to this party, or what?"

"Yeah, let's go." the Doctor said, and they turned to walk down the street towards New Times Square.

"You know." Donna said brightly, as they walked, "Next time I go near that wardrobe, I'm bringing a ball of string, so I can tie it to the door and find my way back. Half expected to find a Minotaur wandering around in there."

x x x

Captain Jack Harkness had found an excellent vantage point at the party. Where he had chosen to sit, you could see everything from up here. There was a band, playing the latest hit music, which the Master was mildly annoyed at not recognising, but when he sat down next to the Captain he pretended to be perfectly indifferent to the entire thing. "Here." he said, handing back the Vortex manipulator.

"You didn't tell the Doctor that I had a part in it, did you?" Jack asked, taking the device and fastening it back onto his own arm.

"I figured that would do something unspeakable to the timelines." the Master answered. He had very briefly considered using the phrase 'screw up the timelines' but had chosen not to say that in front of the Captain.

Jack grinned, "Good."

"You didn't trust me." the Master pointed out. He had genuinely considered leaving the Doctor there, had been about to choose, one way or the other. Even now he wasn't sure which one he would have actually chosen. He did consider his freedom to be of vital importance, but he also didn't like the idea of the Agency getting their claws into the only other Time Lord in existence. But then he had sensed the ripples in time that told him this freak had been right outside the building. He'd known he'd not get away with pulling a stunt like that, this particular human was completely relentless, whatever he wanted. And unkillable too, which would make avoiding him for the rest of his life pretty difficult.

The Captain looked at him, seeming surprised, "Actually, I did." he said, smirking faintly, "But I see I found you too soon for that." It was obvious, now, that he was planning to go to that time and place, and make what had already happened from the Master's perspective happen.

The Master's eyes widened, "That means I really will do something to prove myself trustworthy to you. Ha, It's probably a trick, you know that, right?" he thought for one second, then added, "And even if it will be real, one good deed is not enough to redeem a man of a lifetime of wickedness." Or seven lifetimes, really. Most of his regenerations didn't count, as they were burned up escaping from completely unsurvivable situations. Twice.

"Though it seems enough to condemn him." Jack replied, not in the slightest bit bothered by the movie quote, "It took me four centuries, but I got over that joke eventually." he added brightly. He was now staring at the Master.

After several seconds, the Master got sick of being stared at so intensely, and asked, "What?"

"Just... you look different from the last time I saw you. This face reminds me of the Valiant." There was no bitterness as he said it, no anger. All the torture and death, but the Captain had clearly gotten over that as well. Well, seventeen thousand years is probably enough time to get over most offences, if you're the forgiving and moral sort. Maybe even if you're not, it's not like many people live that long, so there's hardly been a study on the subject.

"So I'm going to regenerate, then?" the Master asked, not exactly shocked, but still somehow not having anticipated it.

"Are you at all surprised?"

"Not really, no." the Master said, shrugging. Then after thinking about this for a moment, he asked, "What will I look like?"

"Not telling." he said, smirking, "That would spoil the fun."

"Well, will I at least be good-looking?" the Master persisted.

"You're asking me?" he laughed, "My definition of that concept is pretty open."

"Hmm." the Master scowled, and chose to listen to the music instead. Most of the lesser life-forms here were dancing, drinking, and otherwise enjoying themselves. It really was a good party- from the human perspective, the Master would never want to participate in such base behaviour and herd mentality, he would much prefer to be the centre of attention- but for some reason Jack showed no inclination to join in. "Have you been here before?"

"You mean right now? No. I just don't want to miss the countdown." It was getting very close to midnight, now.

"Why?" Countdowns were always fun, especially if they were for big explosions, but he somehow didn't see Captain Jack Harkness caring about that sort of thing. The band had stopped playing, now, and the crowd began counting down the last ten seconds of this millennium.

"Old Earth tradition." Jack said, smiling distantly. The Master did not get what he meant. He had never cared about Earth enough to learn most of their customs. What little he had learned about the pathetic little planet had been of direct benefit to his evil schemes. Or on TV when he was bored (he had been very disappointed to learn that Futurama's version of 'Xmas' was highly inaccurate, and if his reign of terror on the Earth had lasted that long he would have seen to it that the idea became more realistic).

Therefore, he was completely taken by surprise when the countdown reached zero, and Jack kissed him.

In that moment of direct physical contact, he could sense the human's emotions. Regret, apology, even real pain. It took him almost five seconds to actually find the will to resist and push Jack away, staring at him in shock. "You saw me die." he whispered. He hadn't sensed exactly that, but from the emotions he had felt it seemed the most logical conclusion.

Jack looked away, not answering. Obviously he hadn't meant to share that emotion. But even without telepathy, the kiss had tasted of goodbye. The Master felt the irrational urge to immediately find a point in this human's personal future, and insist on going there, just to spite the very idea that this was the last time they could meet. To spite the mere possibility that he could ever really die. He was the Master, he had cheated death so many times, far more than mere regenerations could allow. Possessions, resurrected by the High Council itself, the Chameleon Arch, he would always find a way. _Always_.

"I'm sorry." Jack said, when the silence had lasted too long for his liking. He was frowning at the ground, to one side, "I can't tell you."

"When was the last time you saw me?" the Master asked, but he received no answer. "Where?" he insisted.

"Even if I told you that, you couldn't avoid it forever." Jack said quietly, then he looked up at the Master, met his eyes, smiling faintly, "You want to kill me?" he asked, holding his hands out to the side to show that he wouldn't try to stop him if he actually did feel like killing him, "Will it make you feel better?"

"No." the Master said, shaking his head. Even without the restraint band, it wouldn't help. It wouldn't take back what he knew, now. The Master stood up and with far more effort than usual he conjured up a venomous glare for Jack, "I'll see you in hell, Captain."

Jack didn't answer, didn't even look as the Master left to find the Doctor and Donna, wherever they had gotten to. Part of the Master hoped there was trouble when he found them, someone he could have a perfectly rational reason to beat the living snot out of. But mostly he just wanted to leave the Earth and never return.

x x x


	16. Earth Again

x x x

**Chapter 16: Earth Again**

x x x

"This is _utterly ridiculous!_" the Master said loudly. He was, once again, occupying the couch in the control room, and was watching with some trepidation as Donna Noble attempted to fly the TARDIS. He wasn't sure why the Doctor had allowed it, and he really wasn't sure he wanted to know, either.

Most likely, it was because being able to fly a TARDIS could come in handy if the Doctor was separated from them again, and she showed no inclination to allow the Master to touch the controls. Donna, therefore, was the most logical next (and last) choice.

"I can't believe I'm doing this!" Donna said, somewhere between gleeful excitement and blind terror.

"No, neither can I." the Doctor muttered, watching with an expression that resembled fear.

"You should have installed seatbelts and airbags before allowing this sort of thing." the Master said bluntly, "Then again, you need those for your own driving skills, anyway."

"Shut it!" the Doctor snapped. "Oh, careful!" And she quickly reached past Donna to pull up one of the many non-regulation levers on the controls. This bloody piece of junk looked like it didn't have many original parts left, from what the Master could tell.

The Master chose to look away as the Doctor picked up a mallet, and used it to gently 'encourage' a stuck button to become pressable again. It was, in his opinion, unthinkable that one could use violence to encourage a TARDIS to cooperate. Barbaric, primitive, and so very... human. Not at all behaviour befitting a Time Lord. Oh, but threats of violence, those generally worked well enough.

"Left hand down, left hand down!" the Doctor shouted, and the Master could not resist the morbid urge to watch again, as Donna pulled down on the lever in her left hand. The ship swerved violently, trying to throw him off his couch. And he was now holding on to the back of said couch to avoid being thrown into a wall. The Doctor finally gave up, and seized control of the ship again, muttering, "Getting a bit too close to the nineteen eighties!"

"What am I gonna do? Put a dent in 'em?" Donna demanded, indignantly.

"Well, someone did." the Doctor muttered.

"It would take more than a single TARDIS to do that much damage." the Master said clearly, impersonating perfect seriousness well enough that even the Doctor did a double-take at that statement before realising he was joking.

It was at this moment that a phone rang. A mobile, one of those really annoying ringtones which the Master had briefly considered using as a torture device, while he'd ruled the Earth. Still glaring at the Master, the Doctor grabbed the phone, having to almost dance around half the console to get to it.

"You've got a mobile? Since when?" Donna demanded.

"It's not mine." she said, before answering it. "Hello?"

He could see her face light up at the voice that answered, but could not make out the words.

"What date? Where?" she asked, eagerly. As soon as the answer was given, she started turning dials and switches on the controls, "I'll be right there."

"Who was that?" Donna asked, after the Doctor had hung up the phone.

"Martha Jones." the Doctor said, grinning.

The Master rolled his eyes, "Please, no." he said, in vain. He knew the Doctor would never resist a call for help from a former companion. He'd used that to his advantage in the past.

x x x

Donna was still sulking that her driving lesson had been interrupted, when she stepped out of the TARDIS. The Master was, as usual, right behind her.

"Should have known. Didn't take you long to replace me then." Martha noted, looking at Donna. But then she spotted the Master, and glared like she really wanted to see him dead. Donna stepped out of the way of that glare, just in case things got genuinely violent. She could just see this girl slapping the Master, and would pay to watch it, too. "What's he doing here?"

"It's nice to see you, too." the Master growled. To call it sarcasm wouldn't be doing it justice, really.

"Now, don't start fighting." the Doctor said, "Martha, Donna. Donna, Martha. And Martha, please don't kill him."

"But what's he doing here?" Martha repeated, still glaring at the Master.

"Can't leave him on his own, can I?" the Doctor asked, "Who knows what he'd do given the opportunity."

"I love you, too." the Master snarked. Donna spotted the double-take that the Doctor gave that statement, as if she really wondered if he was joking or not, but if Donna had blinked she would've missed it. She decided not to mention it. Not yet, anyway.

Instead, she stepped forward and shook Martha's hand, "Nice to meet you, Martha. I've heard all about you. She talks about you all the time." Donna said, trying to dispel some of the tension.

"I dread to think." Martha joked.

"No, no, no. No. She says nice things." Donna said quickly, "Good things. Nice things. Really... good things."

"Oh my god, she's told you everything." Martha exclaimed, horrified.

"She didn't mention the maid's outfit." the Master put in helpfully.

Martha gave him a murderous glare, while Donna choked, "Do I even _want_ to know?"

"Not really." Martha muttered.

"Alright, let's all stop it!" the Doctor said clearly, "You-" she pointed to the Master, "Shut up. Zip it. Silence. No talking. At all." then she turned to Martha, "Just ignore him, I can control him, he's mostly harmless." she shot a glare at the Master, "Now you've got me quoting that blasted book!"

"Book?" Martha asked.

"Nevermind." the Doctor said, shaking her head.

Just then, the walkie-talkie that Martha carried started talking, "Dr. Jones, report to base please. Over."

"This is Dr. Jones." Martha answered, into the device, "Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!"

x x x

"I hate UNIT." the Master muttered.

"The feeling is mutual." Martha growled, as they approached the makeshift UNIT base. A lot of activity was going on, and it all looked well-planned. Whatever it was must be really important.

"What are you searching for?" the Doctor asked.

"Illegal aliens." Martha said simply, before running off to give orders.

"Is that what you did to her? Turn her into a soldier?" Donna asked.

"No, she chose it herself." the Master said bluntly, "You can't force that sort of change." He had seen it in her eyes, before he'd even known who he was. She had that determination to save the world, galaxy, universe, a single life, no matter what the cost to herself. It was the same as the Doctor, but Martha didn't seem to have the same aversion to the military.

Donna stared at that statement, but didn't retort. The Doctor actually looked relieved to have that accusation lifted, even if it was by her nemesis.

The slightly uneasy silence continued until Martha returned.

In an attempt to break the tension in the air, the Doctor attempted to make casual conversation with Martha, "And you're qualified now? You're a proper doctor."

"UNIT rushed it through given my experience in the field." Martha answered, all business-like, as she led them towards one of the UNIT vehicles, a particularly large truck, "Here we go. We're establishing a field base on site. They're dying to meet you."

"Wish I could say the same." the Doctor muttered.

Inside the truck was a large military setup, with plenty of computers and flashy-looking tech. It might have been impressive if the Master hadn't seen better technology used as children's toys on his homeworld.

Martha approached a man, who appeared to be in charge here, "Operation Blue Sky complete, sir." she informed the man, "Thanks for letting me take the lead. And, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Colonel Mace."

The Colonel stared for several seconds, then asked, "I thought the records said the Doctor was a man?"

The Master bit his lip to avoid laughing. He did not want attention drawn to himself. It was easier than he'd expected, to be ignored. Because Archangel was still in place he could just choose not to be recognised. Still, he figured it would help to avoid too much scrutiny, either way.

"Long story, sir." Martha said, looking amused.

After a very brief muttered conversation with Martha- who seemed highly amused by whatever she was being asked- which the Doctor appeared to have heard and found both amusing and annoying at the same time, the Colonel saluted the Doctor, "Ma'am."

"Oh, don't salute." the Doctor complained.

"Well it's an honour to finally meet you, Doctor. I've read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned."

"What, you used to work for them?" Donna demanded.

"Yeah, long time ago." the Doctor said dismissively, "Back in the seventies. Or was it the eighties?"

"Seventies." the Master answered automatically.

"But it was all a bit more homespun back then." the Doctor continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.

"Times have changed, Ma'am." the Colonel noted.

"Yes, well that's enough of that. And no 'sir's, either." the Doctor said rather sharply, causing Martha to laugh.

"Come on now Doctor, you've seen it." Martha said, "You've been on board the Valiant. We've got massive funding from the United Nations. All in the name of home world security."

The Colonel nodded in agreement, "A modern UNIT for a modern world."

Donna snorted indignantly, "What, and that means arresting ordinary factory workers? In the streets, in broad daylight?" she demanded, "It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute."

The Colonel glanced to the Doctor who simply smiled as if this was very funny. The Colonel seemed to take that as an agreement with her human companion, and immediately complied, saluting Donna, "Ma'am."

"Thank you." she said smugly. The Master rolled his eyes at her behaviour, and continued to do his best to go unnoticed.

The Doctor, who had been looking around herself, to try and see what UNIT was up to, now spoke again, "Tell me. What's going on in that factory?"

"Yesterday fifty-two people died in identical circumstances, right across the world, in eleven different time zones." the Colonel explained, "Five AM in the UK, six AM in France, eight AM in Moscow, one PM in China."

"You mean they died simultaneously." the Doctor interrupted.

"Exactly." the Colonel said, nodding, "Fifty-two deaths at the exact same moment, worldwide."

The Doctor frowned, and asked, "How did they die?"

"They were all inside their cars." the Colonel answered.

"They were poisoned." Martha put in, "I checked the biopsies, no toxins. Whatever it is, left the system immediately."

"What have the cars got in common?" the Doctor asked.

"Completely different makes." Martha said, "They're all fitted with ATMOS. And that-" she pointed to the building they had been arresting the factory workers in, "-is the ATMOS factory."

The Doctor frowned, "What's ATMOS?"

"Oh, come on. Even I know that." Donna declared, as if it was unusual for her to know something. She'd proven to be smarter than most of the Doctor's past companions, but she still seemed in denial about her own potential, "Everyone's got ATMOS!"

x x x

They were led by Martha and the Colonel, into the factory building, along a walkway which overlooked the perfectly innocent-looking production line.

"Stands for Atmospheric Omission System." Martha explained, "Fit ATMOS in your car, reduces CO2 emissions to zero."

"Zero?" the Doctor asked, stunned, "No carbon, none at all?"

"Oh yes." Donna said cheerfully, apparently enjoying the fact that she knew something the Doctor did not, "Sat-nav and twenty quid in shopping vouchers if you introduce a friend. Bargain!"

The Colonel nodded, "And this is where they make it, Doctor. Shipping worldwide. Seventeen factories across the globe, but this is the central depot, sending ATMOS to every country on Earth."

"And you think ATMOS is alien?" the Doctor asked.

"It's our job to investigate that possibility." the Colonel answered.

Bored now.

The Master looked over the railing and saw soldiers ordering factory workers about. Nothing too spectacular. The workers were all human. If this was alien, it was done by people who knew how to cover their tracks well enough. He slipped through a door which led down onto the factory floor, ignoring the rest of the group. The Doctor would know if he did anything 'evil', because her necklace would tell her. He didn't plan on causing trouble, just investigating. Away from UNIT officers. Grunts, he could handle more easily, but the officers were trained to resist mind-tricks. He could probably still dominate them, but didn't really want to make the effort.

He wandered along the factory production line, looking closely at every piece of machinery, to see if anything was out of the ordinary. Nothing was. He did this for about five minutes, without being questioned for his presence. Only when he tried to leave the factory floor to the lower corridors did a soldier finally notice him.

"This area is off-limits to civilians."

The Master tilted his head to one side, "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't know. If I see one, I shall inform you immediately." he idly wished that Jack Harkness- at least the version of him in this time- had been there to curse and swear at his movie quote. This random solider clearly didn't get the joke.

"You're not supposed to be here." the solider insisted.

He hated to use this excuse, he really did, but it was actually true, so... "I'm with the Doctor." He silently added in his mind, 'And if you don't let me through I'll just make you forget I was ever here.'

The soldier frowned, but then spoke into a radio, "Sir, there's a man down here says he's with the Doctor-"

And the Doctor's voice answered, making it clear that she'd grabbed the radio from whoever was supposed to answer, "Tell him to get back here, now!"

"No fair." the Master muttered, sulkily.

"Um, who's this?" the soldier asked confused.

Then the Colonel's voice answered, "That was the Doctor. Do as she says."

"Yes, sir." the soldier answered, and the impression was clearly given that if the Colonel could see him, he'd be saluting whether he really needed to or not. He shut down his radio, and turned to the Master.

With an exasperated sigh, before the solider could pass the order on to him, the Master held his hands up defensively, "I'm going, I'm going."

But as he walked back to the stairway he had used to get down here, he paused. Factory workers were being led off somewhere.

"Hold on a second." he said to the soldiers leading them, just enough persuasion in his voice to prevent the soldier from questioning his presence, no actual domination there. He stepped in front of the nearest worker. He snapped his fingers in front of the man's face but the worker remained impassive. The Master looked closely at his eyes for a second, then nodded and turned to the solider, "Thank you." and he quickly jogged up the stairs towards where the Doctor should be.

He found the room the three women and the Colonel had been in, just as Donna was suggesting, "Maybe they want to help. Get rid of pollution and stuff."

"So few alien races are that selflessly philanthropic." he noted bluntly, "I could count them on one hand."

"What took you so long?" the Doctor asked.

"I was snooping." he said indignantly, "You couldn't trust me for five minutes, could you?"

"No, not really." the Doctor said, grinning brightly to show she was actually joking.

"So if they're not trying to help us, why would they want to clean up our air?" Donna persisted, as if she hadn't been so rudely interrupted.

The Doctor turned to look at her, "Do you know how many cars there are on planet Earth? Eight-hundred-million. Imagine that. If you could control them, you'd have eight hundred million weapons."

"Now you're thinking like me." the Master said, with a grin.

"Shut it." the Doctor said dismissively. This was perfectly normal, but the Colonel seemed taken aback by it none-the-less. Martha actually laughed at the fact the Master obeyed the instruction.

x x x

The Master sat, sulking, in a corner, while the Doctor examined an ATMOS device. Donna sat next to him, frowning at being left out.

"You know, it's times like this I wonder why she brought me along." Donna muttered.

"You seem pretty smart to me. For a human." the Master said, smirking, "Just not with advanced technology that shouldn't exist on this planet in this time."

"Thanks a lot." she retorted snarkily.

"I'm sure there's something productive you could be doing." he said, his tone now smooth, persuasive, as if she really should go and do something, if for nothing else than to spite the fact the Doctor didn't tell her to do anything.

"Like what?" she asked.

"I don't know. You know your own strengths better than I." he grinned, "I'm sure there's something in a big factory you could find."

She pondered this for a few minutes, "You know, I think you've got a point." and she stood up and wandered out, unnoticed by the others.

With nothing better to do, the Master turned his attention to what the Doctor was doing.

Almost half an hour later, and she had finally dissected the ATMOS device completely.

"Ionising nano membrane carbon dioxide converter. Which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level."

The Colonel rolled his eyes, "We know all that, but what's its origin? Is it alien?"

The Doctor shook her head, "No. Decades ahead of its time." the Colonel leaned over the device to try to see what it was that the Doctor saw. "Do you mind?" the Doctor asked, frowning irritably, "Could you just... stand back a bit?"

"Sorry, have I done something wrong?" the Colonel asked, confused.

The Doctor continued to frown at him, "You're carrying a gun. I don't like people with guns hanging around me, all right?"

The Colonel looked genuinely offended, "If you insist." he said, turning and leaving the room.

"Tetchy." Martha noted, her remark directed at the Doctor.

"Well it's true." the Doctor protested.

The Master rolled his eyes, "I'm going to find Donna." he lied, before leaving the room. The other two were so busy arguing they didn't even notice.

Almost as soon as he left the room, he saw the Colonel, several feet away leaning against a wall and staring unseeing out at the factory floor. Clearly, the Doctor's remark about guns had genuinely upset this man. He had been so pleased to meet the Doctor, to be shunned by one's idol must hurt. Not that the Master had any such experience, but he could theorise.

"You should ignore her when she gets like that." the Master said bluntly.

"I don't even know your name." the Colonel noted, turning to face him.

"Nor will you, I hope." the Master said, with a smirk.

"You do look familiar, though."

"Don't ask what you don't want to know." the Master warned. He knew he still looked like Harold Saxon. When he heard he was coming back to Earth he had genuinely considered forcing a regeneration to avoid being recognised, but it was about a year since Harold Saxon had mysteriously vanished, and he really did not feel like wasting a life for something so trivial.

The Colonel raised an eyebrow, "Are you talking about yourself, or this ATMOS business?"

"Myself. I want to know what's behind ATMOS too." he said, laughing. But the laughter died after a second as if he'd never found anything funny in his life, "Seriously, though. The Doctor's just a bit uncomfortable around weapons. Of any sort, really."

"She didn't need to be so rude about it."

"Her latest incarnation is just like that. Come to think of it, he's always been rude in one way or another."

"You've known the Doctor for some time, then?" the Colonel asked.

"Yes."

"What does she have against guns?"

"Most of the weapons he's encountered have been aimed at him." the Master said bluntly, "That would tend to make anyone paranoid."

"I see." the Colonel looked at him carefully, "I still think I've seen you somewhere before."

"I wish you wouldn't think about it."

"You have something to hide?"

"You have no idea."

The Colonel laughed, "I work for UNIT, how bad can it be?"

The Master stared at him for several seconds, seriously considering telling this man that back in the seventies UNIT had a whole filing cabinet just for cases involving him. But he decided it best not to, "Don't ask."

Just then, Donna ran up to them, "Hey, space-man, you were right!" she cheered, "Come on!" and she ran to the room the Doctor and Martha were still occupying.

"Space man?" the Colonel asked.

"What, you thought the Doctor was the only alien who looks human?" the Master asked, grinning, before following Donna into the room. The Colonel shrugged and also followed.

"Oi, you lot! All your storm troopers and your sonics. You're rubbish! Should've come with me." Donna declared.

The Doctor looked up, clearly not having noticed that Donna had even left the room until she came storming back in, "Why, where have you been?"

"Personnel." Donna answered brightly, "That's where the weird stuff's happening; in the paperwork. Cos I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way round an office blindfold, and the first thing I notice is an empty file."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, now curious, "Why, what's inside it? Or what's not inside it?"

"Sick days." Donna answered, "There aren't any. Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill."

"That can't be right." the Colonel said, frowning.

"You've been checking out the building. Should've been checking out the workforce." Donna said.

"On that subject." the Master put in, "Doctor." he beckoned her to follow him out of the room, and she did so, looking curious.

"What is it?" she asked, once they were out of earshot of the others.

"Brainwashing. I mean literally removing free-will, not just controlling."

"So the workers here-?"

"The lights are on, but no one's home. Remote-controlled drones."

The Doctor shuddered at that thought. The Master could see that she had still been holding onto a faint hope that it had been something benign, but now all traces of that hope were gone. Another alien threat to the Earth. Not that it was a new concept, but she'd clearly wanted it to be something less callous this time. Just once.

The Colonel left the office at that moment, "Dr. Jones and Miss Noble are going to deal with examining the workers." he informed them. The Doctor nodded at this. She may have an idea of what the problem was from the Master, but that was a symptom. Martha might be able to determine the cause.

"So this- this ATMOS thing. Where did it come from?" she asked, as the Colonel led them down a corridor.

"Luke Rattigan himself." the Colonel answered.

"Oh, the little rat!" the Master said, cheerfully. At the curious looks the other two threw at him, "Rotten little shit, but a genius. By human standards, anyway."

"You'd get along well with him, then." the Doctor joked.

"Yes, I did." the Master answered, grinning, "Made himself a millionaire with one little internet innovation, when he was still a kid. He's got some sort of cult-school somewhere for other smart kids, now."

"I'll bet you were best of friends. Did he help fund your evil schemes?" the Doctor asked snidely.

"Yes, actually." the Master said, shooting a glance at the Colonel, to see his reaction.

"Evil?" the Colonel asked, looking surprised. As far as the records showed, the Doctor did not associate with evil. Not on friendly terms, at least.

"Relatively. I've seen eviller." the Master said dismissively.

"Like who?" the Doctor sniped.

"Davros."

"You took lessons from him, I believe." she retorted.

"How do you figure that?"

"You called those little metallic fiends your children."

"Right, because that's in any way the same thing." the Master said sarcastically.

"Ahem!" the Colonel snapped, interrupting the debate, "I think I need to know exactly who you are, now." he said pointedly, glaring at the Master.

The Doctor gave the Master an amused look, "You haven't told them, yet?" she asked, laughing.

"No one's tried to arrest me, what do you think?" the Master sniped.

"Good point." she said, nodding, then she turned to the Colonel with a smile that could either be malicious, amused or genuinely friendly. It was actually impossible to tell. "Colonel Mace, allow me to introduce the Master."

The Colonel took a step back from both of them, staring at the Master with genuine fear, now, "But... how? Why is he here?"

"The Doctor finally gave up on trusting other people to keep me locked up." the Master said coldly. He was specifically referring to a certain incident where UNIT had tried to hold him prisoner. That had turned out badly for everyone involved.

"If you want something done right, do it yourself." the Doctor agreed, shrugging.

"But he's not locked up, is he?" the Colonel asked, in a horrified tone.

"Actually, he is. Sort of." the Doctor shrugged, "Long story, but he's currently bound to me, if he goes too far away from me, tries to fly my TARDIS, or causes harm to any sentient being, he gets punished. By that." she pointed to the bracelet the Master wore, which he willingly showed to the Colonel. "That, and I know him well enough to know when he's up to something." she added.

"When am I ever _not_ up to something?" the Master retorted.

"I'm not sure. Even when you sleep, you're dreaming of evil schemes." she said, laughing.

"Since when did you watch me sleeping?" he snarked.

"Since you fell asleep in the control room of the TARDIS with a copy of _Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ on your face. You snore, by the way."

"I do not." the Master muttered indignantly.

"Ahem." the Colonel interrupted, "You know, we do have a situation, Doctor."

"Right. Rattigan." the Doctor said, nodding, "We should pay him a visit."

x x x


	17. Rattigan Academy

x x x

**Chapter 17: Rattigan Academy**

x x x

The Colonel led the two Time Lords out of the factory, towards the UNIT transport vehicles.

"I've got all the files on Rattigan, right here." he noted, indicating the paperwork under his arm.

"You are not coming with me! I want to talk to this Luke Rattigan, not point a gun at him." the Doctor snapped.

"We could always do both." the Master suggested hopefully.

"It's ten miles outside London." the Colonel said, frowning, "How are you going to get there?"

"Well, then get me a jeep." she suggested.

"According to the records you travel by TARDIS." the Colonel noted pointedly. Wow, he can read, impressive for a human. But the Master refrained from voicing the snide thought.

"Yes, but if there are going to be hostile aliens I think it's best to keep a powerful time machine away from the front lines." the Doctor retorted.

"Powerful?" the Master asked with a snort, "I thought we already established it was an outdated piece of junk, even in the opinions of your friends?"

The Doctor almost choked, "When did Jack say that?"

"It was Martha, actually." the Master answered.

"I see. So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden." the Colonel continued, as if the two hadn't been bickering in-between the relatively civilised conversation. It appeared to be perfectly normal, from the way they reacted to it. Almost a game. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I'm not letting this dangerous criminal out of my sight, as long as he's on Earth."

"You flatter me, Colonel." the Master said, sarcastically, "Go on, Doctor, give the gun-toting human a chance."

"You're not helping." she retorted, glaring at the Master, but then she turned to the Colonel, "Alright, you can take us up to meet Rattigan, but no waving weapons about. Got it?"

"Fair enough." the Colonel agreed.

At that moment, Donna ran up to them, "Doctor!" she called, out of breath, before stopping right next to them.

"Oh, just in time!" the Doctor cheered, "Come on! Come on, we're going to the country. Fresh air and geniuses, what more could you ask?"

"I'm not coming with you." Donna said bluntly. The Doctor stared, dumbstruck.

"Martha scared you off, huh?" the Master asked, grinning coldly, only to earn a glare from Donna.

"Oh, don't get me started on that, space-man." Donna snarled, "Wait till this is over, then I'll tear you a new one for what you did to that girl!" she then turned back to the Doctor, "I've been thinking. I'm sorry, I'm going home."

"Really?" the Doctor asked, still stunned.

"I've got to." Donna answered simply.

The Doctor looked genuinely hurt by this, "Well, if that's what you want." she said, frowning, "I mean it's a bit soon. I had so many places I had wanted to take you. The Fifteenth Broken Moon of the Medusa Cascade, the Lightning Skies of Cotter Palluni's World, Diamond Coral Reefs of Kataa Flo Ko... Thank you. Thank you, Donna Noble. You-"

It was at this point that the Master doubled over in a fit of laughter. The Doctor paused in her prattling to stare at him. He was cackling, somewhere between mania and hysterics, unable to speak for laughing too much.

"And you're just popping home for a visit, that's what you mean, isn't it?" she finished, glaring at the Master as she spoke.

"You dumbo!" Donna announced brightly.

"And then you're coming back." the Doctor continued. Even the Colonel was smiling at this misunderstanding. Finally, the Master stopped laughing.

"Moron." he added his opinion to Donna's.

"Know what you are? A great big outer-space dunce." Donna said brightly.

"Complete idiot." the Master suggested just as cheerfully.

The Doctor glared at him, "I'm sure she doesn't need help insulting me, thank you very much."

"Especially when I'm right." Donna said proudly.

"We should get moving." the Colonel noted, already in the driver's seat of the jeep they would be travelling in. It was a five-seater, which was for the best, seeing as the other three similar vehicles lined up next to it were only designed for two or three people.

Donna grinned, "What's more you can give me a lift. Come on!" she said, hopping into the rear passenger side of the jeep.

The Doctor immediately claimed the front passenger seat, leaving the Colonel the severe displeasure of having the Master sitting directly behind him where he couldn't easily keep an eye on him.

"Broken moon of what?" Donna asked, amused.

"I've heard it's beautiful this time of the millennium." the Master noted brightly.

x x x

After dropping Donna off near her home, the Colonel drove on into the countryside, to the Rattigan Academy. The entire journey passed in uneasy silence, until they left the jeep.

"We've been watching this place for a while now." the Colonel noted, "As the Master so accurately suggested, it seems very much like a cult." While the Colonel was speaking, the Master wandered around the jeep itself, and gave a good sharp kick to the underside of the vehicle. "What are you doing!" the Colonel demanded.

"Wondering why there's one of these things on your jeep, if you think they're dangerous." the Master said pointedly.

"So was I." the Doctor said, frowning, "But I didn't feel the need for violence."

"Inanimate object. I can be as violent to it as I damned well please." the Master said, smirking.

The Colonel sighed, "ATMOS is standard issue in all government vehicles. Unless we can prove they're dangerous, we're stuck with them."

"Does the Rat know we're coming?" the Master asked innocently.

"Not yet, should I warn him?" the Colonel asked.

"Oh, please don't." the Master said, grinning evilly, "More fun when they don't expect you." On hearing this, the Colonel looked to the Doctor for her opinion.

"I say let him have his fun." the Doctor said brightly, "He can't actually hurt anyone, and he _does_ know Rattigan." Reluctantly, the Colonel nodded, accepting this suggestion.

They approached the front doors of the Academy, and the Master knocked loudly, the drum-beat. After almost a minute, the door opened a crack, "What do you want?" the student demanded.

"I'm here to see Luke Rattigan." the Master answered, smiling that evil smile that's supposed to look friendly but really doesn't.

"Sorry, no one sees Mr Rattigan."

"Not nobody, not nohow!" the Master added, jokingly. But then his expression became serious, and he glared ominously at the student, "Do you know who I am?"

"No, I don't." the student answered bluntly.

The Master rolled his eyes, "Ignorant children." he snapped, shoving the door open, in spite of the student's attempts to stop him. "Hey, Rat-boy, where are you hiding?"

"Harold Saxon. Polite and patient as always." an amused and sarcastic voice said from one side, "Let them in, Stephen."

The student reluctantly stepped aside, glaring at the Master.

"Harold Saxon?" the Colonel demanded, horrified once more.

"Long story." the Doctor muttered.

"Is anything pertaining to you a short story, Doctor?" the Colonel then asked.

"No, not really." she answered brightly.

The Master laughed at the Colonel's reaction, but then turned to smirk at Rattigan, "Hello, Rat-boy."

"You're looking pretty good for a dead man." Rattigan noted, almost managing to match the Master's evil smirk. Almost. "What do you want this time, more money?"

The Master snorted, "Something far more valuable than money. I want information." he wandered further into the building, into a room filled with interesting technology. Especially interesting for this era of Earth history, because it just did not belong. Rattigan, the Doctor and the Colonel followed him.

"Good, because I wasn't going to give you more funding for some _other_ scientist's projects." Rattigan sounded genuinely offended about this past insult.

"Especially not when you've got so many of your own." the Master noted, looking around the room, "Doctor, does any of this look familiar to you?"

"I'll say." she answered, brightly. She wandered around the room, now, clearly trying to look casual in spite of her obvious excitement at the sight of so many interesting toys left laying around where she could press buttons if she felt so inclined. The Master just watched her. "Single molecule fabric, you could pack a tent in a thimble. Gravity simulators." she paused to grin at the Master and Rattigan. Rattigan was looking a bit uneasy now, "Terraforming, biospheres, nano-tech steel constructs. You know, with equipment like this you could... oh, I don't know, move to another planet or something?"

"If only that was possible." Rattigan said, trying to sound casual about it, but there was an edge to his voice that showed he really was uncomfortable with the direction this meeting was taking.

"If only that _were_ possible." she corrected, "Conditional clause."

Rattigan glared at her, but then retaliated by saying. "I see you've found a girlfriend who's personality matches your own, Mr Saxon."

The Doctor looked offended for a fraction of a second, but then shrugged and didn't argue. The Master, on the other hand, choked, "She is _not_ my girlfriend."

"What are you, twelve?" the Doctor snorted, "Sound like a teenager in denial."

"Oh, do shut up." the Master snapped.

"I notice you didn't argue that your personality matches his?" the Colonel put in unhelpfully.

"We used to be friends." she said dismissively, "Before he got delusions of grandeur, and started plotting world domination."

Rattigan laughed, but then changed the subject, "So exactly what information were you looking for, Mr Saxon? What brilliant scientific project do you need my help with? Because your _girlfriend_ is obviously smart enough to help with lesser technical details." he emphasised the word 'girlfriend' on purpose.

"Lesser?" the Doctor snapped indignantly, looking up from the gravity simulator she had been examining, "I could invent circles around you, Rattigan."

"Not now, please, Doctor." the Master said in a warning tone. It wasn't a threat, just a warning of the fact that she would cause them more trouble than Rattigan was worth if she challenged him. "Is there somewhere we could discuss this in private?" he asked Rattigan, glancing pointedly at the students.

"Of course, this way." and Rattigan led the three of them through the building, to another- rather large- room. No one else was here, but both Time Lords immediately noticed the object in the corner. It was definitely not of Earth origin. Once the doors were closed, Rattigan turned to face them again, "So what do you want, Mr Saxon?"

"I was curious about this ATMOS thing."

"Only just seen the ads on T.V.?" Rattigan taunted, "Have you been under a rock for the last year?"

"Have you been able to track me for the last year?" the Master retorted.

"Touche." Rattigan said, with a smirk, "You know how to disappear, I'll give you that. You do know there's a price on your head?"

"I figured as much. You get that sort of thing for assassinating world leaders, don't you?"

"Indeed." Rattigan grinned, "Very impressive little weapons, they were, too. Anti-gravity fields, lasers, voice-recognition, and I think artificial intelligence. I wish I could get my hands on one."

"Good luck trying." the Master muttered, before pointedly reminding the teenager of why he was here, "Now. ATMOS?"

"Does exactly what it says on the box." Rattigan said, shrugging, "Zero carbon emissions. Cleaning up the atmosphere."

"Saving the world." the Doctor said distantly. Rattigan probably wouldn't see it, but the Master could tell she was resisting the urge to laugh or take on a taunting tone in her voice. "Brilliant work for an eighteen year old. Would have thought it brilliant from a Noble-Prize-winning eighty-year-old who'd dedicated his entire life to science."

Rattigan looked proud, as if she'd complimented him. Unobservant human. "Takes a man with vision." he said smugly.

"Mmhm, blinkered vision." she retorted, now allowing that taunting tone to come out, "'Cause ATMOS means more people driving, more cars, more petrol, end result: the oil's gonna run out faster than ever. The ATMOS system could make things worse."

Rattigan grinned, and retorted quickly, "Yeah, see, that's tautology. You can't say 'ATMOS system' since it stands for 'atmospheric emissions system'. So you're just saying 'atmospheric emissions system system'. D'you see, Mrs Conditional Clause?"

"It's been a long time since anyone really argued with you, hasn't it?" she noted.

"I'm still right though." Rattigan noted too brightly.

"And I am not married." she added in a tone that was almost a growl.

"Not yet." Rattigan glanced at the Master, and the Doctor looked so offended it was surprising she didn't slap that smirk right off Rattigan's face.

"Now who's being childish?" the Master noted coldly. He walked over to Rattigan, and asked in a low and threatening voice, "How exactly does someone born in the twentieth century manage to put together ionising nano-membranes in anything even approaching so small a device. And all on their own, too, hmm?"

Rattigan turned to glare at the Master, "You always gave the impression you weren't that technically minded?"

"That's what I wanted you to think." he said, smirking.

"A very convincing facade, Mr Saxon. Machiavelli would be jealous."

He laughed, "I taunt that ignorant ape everything he knew, Rat-boy."

Rattigan's eyes widened, "What are you?"

"Oh, so now you believe I'm not human?"

"You can't be." he said quietly.

"What other non-humans have you met, to allow you to believe this?"

Rattigan shook his head, "No one lives that long, is all." he said, far too quickly.

"Don't lie to me, Rat-boy, I can always tell."

Rattigan looked genuinely scared, now. "I wasn't lying."

"No, but you weren't telling the whole truth."

"Get out. Right now." Rattigan ordered, but it wasn't shouted. He seemed too frightened to raise his voice.

"Or what?"

"I'll be collecting the bounty on your head."

"Ha! I'd like to see you try!"

Rattigan backed up towards the machine in the corner of the room. "If you say so, Mr Saxon." he said, suddenly grinning evilly. He pressed a button on the device, and a beeping sound could be heard. Then, two seconds later, there was a flash of light, and a heavily armoured- and rather short- being appeared in what could now be clearly identified as a teleportation pad.

The Master recognised it immediately. A Sontaran warrior.

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise, and she drew her sonic screwdriver, before the Sontaran could react to what- to all intents and purposes- appeared to be an enemy drawing a weapon. She aimed it at the teleport pad, and sparks flew from the control panel before any more Sontarans could arrive.

"Why did you summon me?" the Sontaran demanded.

"Intruders asking too many questions." Rattigan said, pointing to the three of them, "Him first." he added, indicating the Master.

"Hello... ah, General?" the Master raised an eyebrow in question. The markings on the armour signified the rank, but he wasn't exactly an expert on Sontaran hierarchy.

The General seemed to hesitate, "Who is he?" he demanded of Rattigan.

"Harold Saxon. Or at least, that's the name he's been using recently."

"Oh, finally researched my back-story, did you?" the Master asked, smirking, "I didn't need to make it too real, because I have other ways of making people do what I want. I'm sure you found plenty of holes in the story after I disappeared."

"Five hundred and sixty-four specific details that didn't match. Seventeen years unaccounted for. And not a single official document, not even a birth certificate." Rattigan said, nodding.

"What's a Sontaran doing using stealth and sneakery to get what he wants?" the Master asked bluntly. "If you wanted a war with Earth, you would have started it already. Seems almost... cowardly." that last word was said with such distain, and a cruel smirk as well. He knew perfectly well that either he was about to get shot at, or the Sontaran would reveal its evil scheme to spite its newfound enemy... then he'd get shot at. Either way, he was fairly certain he could dodge a laser blast at this distance. He hoped.

"You dishonour me, sir!" the Sontaran yelled.

"So show your face." the Master said, grinning. It looked like it was going for the second option.

"I will look into my enemy's eyes!" the Sontaran declared, with indignant pride, as it removed its helmet. They all look alike, though. This did nothing in the cause of identifying the Sontaran General.

"You got a name to go along with that ugly face?" the Master asked.

"I am General Staal, of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet. Staal the Undefeated!"

"Well, that's not a very good nickname." the Doctor noted, finally joining in the game. Because that's what it was to the Master. A game. "What if you do get defeated? Staal the Not-Quite-So-Undefeated-Anymore-But-Nevermind?"

She had wandered away from the others, and picked up a tennis racket, and was now bouncing a ball on it. Yes, definitely a game. He smirked, guessing the only possible reason for such apparently idle activity was that she had a plan. He didn't care what it was, it would probably keep him from getting shot at, so he was all for it.

"I am the General of the greatest battlefleet in this galaxy, and you will not insult me, woman!"

"You're right. Sontarans are the finest soldiers in the galaxy." she said, nodding, "Dedicated to a life of warfare. A clone race, grown in batches of millions with only one weakness."

"Sontarans have no weakness!" Staal snarled.

"No, it's a good weakness." she said, grinning.

The Master noticed Rattigan edging for the door, nervously. As if he expected the resulting fight to end in the whole room getting blown up, or something similar. He quickly grabbed the teenager by the arm, "You're going nowhere, Rat-boy."

"Are you two suicidal! Only an idiot would provoke him." Rattigan snapped.

The Doctor shrugged, "Maybe I am." was she referring to the word 'suicidal' or 'idiot', there? "But the Sontarans are fed by a probic vent in the back of their neck, that's their weak spot. Which means, they always have to face their enemies in battle. Isn't that brilliant? They can never turn their backs!"

"We stare into the face of death!" Staal replied, proudly.

"Yeah?" the Doctor asked, her grin becoming malicious, finally, "Well, stare at this!"

She threw the ball into the air, and hit it with the racket, sending it flying right past Staal, and into the back of the teleporter. It bounced, and hit Staal in the back of the neck. Perfect aim... but that was to be expected, really. Most Time Lords have the innate ability to calculate that sort of thing, and good enough coordination to pull it off, too.

Staal collapsed, "Time to leave, I think." the Master noted, "This isn't over, Rat-boy." and he shoved Rattigan away, so the teenager landed on the floor, before turning to follow the Doctor and the Colonel, who had already fled the room.

x x x

"Such a fine and noble tradition, and the Sontarans can't even consider it." the Master said brightly, as their jeep zoomed back towards London.

"What are you talking about?" the Colonel demanded.

"Running away." the Master answered brightly.

The Doctor laughed, "Always good to have an escape plan."

"You did not plan that." the Master noted.

"I know." she said, shrugging.

She picked up a radio, and tried to contact the UNIT base. No response.

"That's not good." the Master muttered.

"Why isn't it working?" the Colonel asked.

"Must be the Sontarans." she answered, frowning. She looked worried, now. "If they can trace that, then they can isolate the ATMOS."

"Turn left." the ATMOS' navigation system said.

"Try going right." the Doctor said immediately. The Colonel seemed to understand why she said this, and tried to obey her, but the jeep swerved to the left instead.

"It's driving itself, I can't stop it!" the Colonel said, fighting with the steering wheel regardless.

"Doors are locked." the Master noted, having immediately tried his door the instant the jeep had turned left instead of right.

The Doctor took out that bloody sonic screwdriver- the Master hated that thing, but if it saved them now he'd forgive it for existing- and she started trying to access the sat-nav control box. "Damn, it's deadlocked. Can't stop it." she said, frowning.

"Turn left." the sat-nav said, and again, the jeep swerved to the left.

"Can we at least rip out the voice-synthesizers?" the Master suggested. No one else saw the funny side of that. And they went off the road, heading right for the river. "Oh this looks like fun." the Master muttered, sarcastically, pointing ahead of them. The Doctor looked up, and saw the river.

After just less than a second's hesitation, or more likely thought, she spoke, "ATMOS, you're programmed to contradict our orders?"

"Confirmed." the sat-nav answered.

"Anything we say, you'd ignore it?" she continued.

"Confirmed." it answered.

"Drive into the river!" the Master said, getting what she was implying.

"Yes, drive into the river. That's an order, do it!" the Doctor agreed, she might have sounded almost cheerful, if they weren't in mortal peril.

The brakes slammed on, and the jeep skidded to a halt right at the edge of the water. But the sat-nav kept talking. It was going to blow a circuit. In its confusion over the fact that its programming contradicted itself, the ATMOS seemed to be unable to keep the doors locked. Good thing, too. All of them vacated the vehicle, and ran away from it.

"Get down!" the Doctor shouted, and they all threw themselves behind some plants, which probably would not provide much protection from any explosions.

But when nothing did explode, unless you count a couple of sparks flying from the sat-nav, they looked up and stared at the jeep.

"Was that it?" the Doctor asked.

"You know, when you actually stop to think about it-" the Master noted, smirking now, "-how many Earth vehicles keep their explosive chemicals right next to the navigation controls, anyway?"

x x x


	18. Clone War

x x x

**Chapter 18: Clone War**

x x x

"I refuse to deal with Donna's family, that's your personal nightmare, Doctor." the Master said bluntly, "Besides, from what Miss Noble told me, her mother is an avid follower of politics, I don't need to be recognised by someone on this planet who _isn't_ already a corrupted evil genius."

"Fine." the Doctor said, shrugging, "Colonel, could you take him back to the UNIT base? I'll find my own way back."

"Are you sure that's wise? What if he tries something?" the Colonel asked, worried.

"He can't hurt you without hurting himself. And Martha can control him, once you get back." the Doctor said, shrugging. The Master sulked at the suggestion that Martha could possibly make him behave, but didn't argue, because it was probably true.

So it was that the Master and Colonel Mace caught a taxi back to the ATMOS factory. Since their jeep was completely useless, and they'd already had to walk into Chiswick, which was luckily not very far.

"Now, Colonel." the Master explained, as they were stepping out of the taxi, "Have you read the Sontaran files?"

"No." the Colonel said, frowning.

"Then you need to know it's virtually suicidal to face them in direct battle, especially on even grounds. If you want to fight them, you need to be better armed by far than them, and Earth just doesn't have that sort of power yet."

"Are you suggesting surrender?"

"No, I'm suggesting avoiding direct combat. Strategic retreat, if necessary."

"Why do I not believe you're telling the truth?" the Colonel asked, coldly.

"You don't need to believe me, you just need to avoid a situation in which you're forced to test my word." the Master retorted, smirking, "If you fight them, you will get massacred."

But they had barely reached the gates to the factory grounds when a cry for help sounded from the taxi. Smoke was erupting from the vehicle, and the driver's yells were audible even through the glass.

The Master rolled his eyes, "Go give orders to whoever you give orders to, I'm going to commit some vandalism."

The Colonel stared, "You care about human life all of a sudden?"

"No, but I do like having a good excuse to break things, and the Doctor's very strict about that sort of thing."

The Colonel laughed at this, and shook his head, "Inside within fifteen minutes, or I'll send a squad out to arrest you."

"You're almost as bad as she is." the Master said, grinning as he turned and ran back to the taxi.

As soon as he was close enough to smell it, he could tell that the smoke was toxic to humans, not very fast-acting, but still. Not a problem for him, although it would reduce the amount of oxygen in the area.

Ignoring the screams from the human inside the taxi, he opened the hood of the vehicle, and saw that ATMOS has suddenly decided to defend itself. Spikes, very vicious looking ones, too. He carefully reached past the spikes, and found the fuel feed into the engine. Ripped that out. Still nothing. Battery, removed that. ATMOS continued to spew poisonous gasses.

"Oh, come on." he muttered, pulling out the cheap sonic toy the Doctor had allowed him to have (three measly settings and not a laser in sight... and that one time he had tried to tamper with it to make it more powerful, he had received a nasty shock from the restraint band. But still, it was better than nothing), and began scanning the device. "Son of a-" he hissed, before abandoning that angle of attack. ATMOS was generating its own poison and energy, without needing the rest of the car to help it.

He quickly glanced around and saw a pile of rubbish to one side, including several bricks. Might break something with that. He quickly ran over and picked up one of these, before turning around to throw it at the car. The man had already seen what he was doing, and was hiding behind the steering wheel, which just goes to show, humans in general are far smarter as individuals than in packs.

He threw the brick as hard as he could, aiming for the passenger side of the windscreen. It hit its target, but only cracked and dented the glass. Quite a large crack, but not nearly good enough. So he threw another brick. This one did the trick, and the man in the taxi showed enough intelligence to climb out immediately.

"You... saved my life." he noted, still in shock about his life being in danger in the first place.

"I also wrecked your car." the Master noted, grinning maniacally, "Please direct all insurance claims to Luke Rattigan and the ATMOS company." he turned around and started walking away without waiting for the man to say anything more, shouting over his shoulder, "Have a nice day!" before laughing and running towards the factory.

x x x

"Did you enjoy yourself?" the Colonel asked coldly, as the Master entered the mobile command centre. Before entering such a crowded little facility, filled to the brim with UNIT mooks, the Master had tapped into Archangel, easily slipping back into the 'trust me' aura he had used for so long. Of course, as Martha Jones and Colonel Mace knew who he really was, they couldn't be fooled, but he didn't feel like being questioned by everyone else right now.

"Not as much fun as I'd anticipated. Maybe if it had been Kitt, it might have been more fun." he answered, referring to one of the many TV series' he'd heard about during his time on Earth, while he looked around the command room, "What are you planning?"

"We're preparing our defences, just in case." the Colonel answered, glaring at him.

"Even charging those pea-shooters you call planetary defence weapons could be interpreted as provocation, and your best shields are about as much use as a wet paper bag against them. Even the Valiant isn't set up to repel a Sontaran warship. Hell, the Valiant would have trouble taking down a single Sontaran scout vessel."

"But if they're attacking, what choice do we have?" Martha demanded, looking up from the computer she had been working at.

"Oh yes, because tactical nukes and laser cannons have a hope of so much as denting their armour!" the Master snapped at her, with deepest sarcasm. He was acutely aware of the fact he was becoming more manic. In this situation it might even be beneficial. "They'd be lucky to scratch the paint. If the Sontarans were vain enough to use paint. They aren't."

He paused, displeased with her lack of a reaction. She wasn't glaring at him, just staring. There was a negative emotion there, but it was nothing like the venom he was used to seeing in her eyes. Disdain, rather than hatred.

"Now, give me a year or so, I'm sure I could show you how to build a point-singularity conversion warhead. That would easily take out an entire Sontaran battlefleet, no problem. But we really don't have time for that right now. What do you think, Martha Jones?" He asked that last with a cruel smirk. Martha had known what he'd been up to during those three months that she and the Doctor were imprisoned aboard the Valiant. He had taken great glee in letting all his prisoners know exactly what he was doing to their homeworld.

"You're not helping." she said coldly.

"Aww, where's that purest loathing I like to see in your eyes, little Miss Martha? Don't tell me you're going soft, hmm?" the Master chided, and immediately Martha put on her fullest glower, just for him, "That's more like it."

"Excuse me, but who are you?" a young soldier asked from one of the computer stations.

The Master turned to look at this individual with surprise. He wasn't taken in by Archangel at all. "Congratulations, you just made the top two percent of humanity, for willpower and psychic perception." he said bluntly, glancing at the Colonel long enough to suggest, "Give this kid a promotion." before proceeding to ignore the confused soldier completely.

"Colonel, we shouldn't trust him." Martha pointed out, "I wouldn't put it past him to try to make us let our guard down so the Sontarans can free him from the Doctor."

"Why Martha, that sounded almost like a sale's pitch." the Master said, feigning indignity, "As if I'd waste my time with a bunch of lesser life-forms like those pathetic clones. Not worth my time. Small potatoes, you could say." The Colonel actually laughed, albeit nervously, having seen what the Sontarans looked like, but the Master noted the irritated twitch from Martha. "Aww, looking for an excuse to get me executed, were you? Well I'm only too happy to disappoint you."

He had known something was wrong with Martha's behaviour from the moment he walked into the room and _wasn't_ on the receiving end of a death glare. The 'sales pitch' remark had not been accidental, and her reaction to the phrase 'small potatoes'- as if it actually offended her, and she had been trying to hide that reaction- had been the final straw.

Of course, at that moment, the Doctor arrived. "Right then, here I am, good. Whatever you do, Colonel Mace, do not engage the Sontarans in battle, there is nothing they like better than a war. Just leave this to me."

The Master smirked, and gave the Colonel an '_I told you so_' smug look.

"And what are you going to do?" the Colonel asked the Doctor, seeming to accept the instruction, although he glared in response to the Master's smirk.

"I've got the TARDIS, I'm gonna get on board their ship." the Doctor said simply. She beckoned to Martha, "Come on!"

He watched them leave with a slight frown, then sat down in front of the computer Martha had been working at earlier. Backtracked through the access logs, to find the last log's files completely missing. This only confirmed his suspicion that she was working for the Sontarans, but it didn't tell him what she was up to.

"And what do you think you're doing?" the Colonel demanded, from directly behind him.

"Confirming a suspicion." the Master muttered, before standing up and leaving the command base.

x x x

Martha and the Doctor returned sooner than he anticipated. Martha entered the base quickly to avoid the poisonous gas, but the Master stopped the Doctor and whispered, "TARDIS?"

"Gone." she answered, scowling.

"Give me permission to hurt Sontarans." he made it sound like he was trying to give her an order, but the urgency in his tone made it clear he had a real plan. She must have realised this, because normally she would bicker over the semantics of him trying to order her around. Not to mention the hilarity of trying to order her to give him permission for something.

"Sure thing. You're allowed to harm the Sontarans. But no killing." she said warningly.

He grinned brightly, "Thanks. In a few minutes it might be a good idea to wonder loudly where I've disappeared to and what evil deeds I'm up to."

"You've noticed, too?"

"Martha? Yes."

She frowned, "I'm not sure I want to know what you're planning... but good luck." And she disappeared into the UNIT command centre.

The Master, meanwhile, turned and ran towards the factory. He found UNIT soldiers inside, and hoped to the powers of darkness and chaos that none of them were resistant to Archangel as he used the network to make himself unnoticeable. Sure enough, none of them so much as looked his way when he walked right by them.

He passed four more groups of soldiers, before finally finding his way into the depths of the factory. This part of the building was ominous, to say the least. The lighting was dodgy, and the place smelled funny. Yep, the Sontarans were not good enough at preparing secret hideouts to be completely inconspicuous. Maybe he should teach them a lesson?

He found the source of the smell to be behind one door in particular, and knocked on it as loudly as possible without bruising his hand. The drumbeat. It may have faded over time- the Doctor's presence helped- but it never really went away, and when he had genuine need to make any percussive sound it always came out as that.

The door slid open, and he found himself facing another Sontaran. If he had to guess at the rank insignia, this one was a commander.

"Identify yourself!" the Sontaran demanded, aiming a weapon at the Master.

"You first." he returned, holding his hands out to the sides to show he was unarmed.

"I am Commander Skorr of the-"

"Tenth Sontaran Battlefleet, yeah, I get it." the Master interrupted irritably, "You got a nickname like your General? He said he was the Undefeated, how about you?"

"I am known as Skorr the Bloodbringer."

"Now that IS a good name." the Master said, nodding appreciatively, "Tells the enemy exactly what to expect. A very bloody death, am I right?"

"That is correct."

"Now, me, I'm not your enemy."

"Is that so?" Skorr asked, sceptically.

"I'm the enemy of your enemy. You know, UNIT? Hate them. Earth? Tried to destroy it myself, more than once. The Doctor? Well, that's why I'm here."

"Explain."

"Alright." he pulled back his right sleeve, to show the restraint band, "Do you know what this is?"

"An Arcadian restraint band." Skorr said, evidently disgusted by the sight of it.

The Master nodded, "It binds me to the Doctor. If I hurt anyone- and I love hurting people, humans especially- it punishes me. I'm not allowed to have any fun anymore!"

"What makes you believe we would not simply kill you?"

"Your little infiltrator, Miss Jones. A clone, am I right?" Skorr looked shocked that someone had discovered this. The Master smirked, "She all but told me to come down here and make a deal with you. So, my offer is this: I help you capture the Doctor, you kill the Doctor. Mutually beneficial arrangement, and I'll leave you to your world domination, or whatever it is you're up to here. How's that sound?"

"It is an interesting proposition. The Doctor has been known to be troublesome in the past." Skorr admitted.

"And you would have the distinguished honour of being the one to slay the Doctor." the Master noted, playing on the Sontaran's greatest weakness, more so than the probic vent, their desire for glory in war. The opportunity to be the one to dispose of a great enemy, as the Doctor was to the Sontarans, should be practically irresistible to Skorr.

Skorr eyed him in a calculating way, "If you bring the Doctor here, I shall be only too proud to execute such an adversary, and you will be free to leave."

The Master smiled at this, "I'll need the TARDIS, I don't have my own transport."

"Impossible." Skorr declared, "The Doctor's TARDIS is a trophy of war."

"Then I need a teleport to Cardiff, in order to get offworld." he suggested.

"That can be arranged."

The Master nodded, "Then we have an accord." and he held out his hand. Skorr hesitated for only a second before- as Sontaran tradition dictates in forming an alliance- removing his armoured gauntlet and shaking hands with the Master. Funny, the little moron never even got an answer when it asked his name, and yet it seemed to accept his offer.

He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Sontarans would try to betray him, what would any self-respecting warlord have to gain by letting a traitor to their enemy live once said enemy was betrayed? But the Master intended to betray the Sontarans before they had a chance to betray him.

He quickly moved back past the first line of UNIT guards, and found somewhere out of the way and quiet to work. A small alcove in one of the corridors, where he was able to sit down, completely out of sight.

Skorr had made a big mistake shaking his hand. Purebred Sontaran clones smell bad because they sweat and shed flakes of their skin at a far higher rate than most other humanoids. Totally repulsive, but necessary for his current plan. He took out the sonic pen the Doctor had given him, and scanned his right hand, until he'd isolated a sample of the Sontaran's DNA.

As soon as he had done so, he spent far more time than was strictly necessary wiping his right hand on a handkerchief, to get rid of the taint of Sontaran. He could still smell their stench, wafting up the corridor from their 'hidden' base, and that was bad enough. But it had been worth it, because now he had a piece of vital information, he closed his eyes and reached out to the Archangel network.

It was designed to be capable of accepting direct commands from his mind, that had been the main purpose of its existence, after all. It took him about fifteen minutes to reconfigure the frequency to include Sontarans as well as humans, but it wasn't as easy as he'd first expected. Sontaran brainwaves were not designed to handle any level of telepathy, so the signal had to be boosted. On the bright side, this meant that they had absolutely no resistance against the signal once it was strong enough to affect their minds.

One hundred percent efficiency, no need to worry about individuality with a clone race. If he'd been free to do as he pleased, instead of restricted by the Doctor, he could easily have taken over the entire Sontaran army and bent it to his will with this technology. Why had he never considered this before? Oh well, no point worrying about what he might have done.

He reinforced the '_ignore me_' signal, attuning it more directly to the Sontarans than the humans. It meant that the UNIT mooks might notice him, but that was something he could talk his way out of, especially as the '_trust me_' signal was still aimed straight at them.

He stretched as he stood up, realising just how uncomfortable he had actually been, now that his mind was no longer focused elsewhere, and swore to research a way to bring a comfortable armchair with him wherever he went in the future.

x x x

"I'm not interrupting anything important, am I?" the Master asked, as he approached the group of five soldiers loitering- not even pretending to be alert- at the last corridor junction before the Sontaran 'hideout'.

"Who're you?" the leader of this little group asked, warily.

"I'm not even really here." the Master said, smirking, "But if I were you, I'd not try firing those toy-guns at anything that comes out of there."

"Why not?" the soldier demanded.

"Cordolaine signal. You'll not even get one shot off. In fact, you'll be lucky not to blow your hands off." the Master said, trying not to laugh at that mental picture, "So if you see anything down there, run away."

"But we have orders-"

"I have a higher authority than UNIT." the Master said, smirking, "Not that you'd understand why." he tapped into the Archangel signal once more, amplifying it, and he looked into the soldier's eyes, reinforcing the signal with a direct telepathic command, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."

"Famous last words." one of the lesser soldiers noted brightly.

The Master chose to ignore the other soldier, in favour of the one he had hypnotised, "If you see anything come out of that corridor, other than myself, call it in and retreat. If you like being alive, that is."

With that, he turned and walked slowly down the corridor.

It didn't take long for the Sontarans to emerge from their hideout. War had been declared. Took them long enough, considering their species' nature.

First out was Skorr, followed by two lines of fully armoured soldiers marching in perfect time. He idly wondered how many hours a day they spent on drill, to synchronising their steps like that. Or maybe it was just because they were all clones? Who cares?

As the last two left the 'hideout', he hit them both on the back of the neck- even a light tap is enough to do it, and he struck them as hard as he could with the heels of his hands- knocking them out cold. The sound of collapsing bodies attracted the attention of the other Sontarans, but they didn't see him standing in the doorway.

Grinning in spite of the fact they couldn't see him, he circled around to hit another one on the back of the neck, now that it had been looking at its fallen comrades.

"What is the meaning of this?" Skorr shouted, over the heads of his fellows. The others had instinctively moved into a defensive formation, back-to-back, making further attacks impossible. No problem, he'd had enough fun for now, anyway.

The Master backed up into the 'hideout', and closed the door before using the sonic pen to lock it behind him. No Sontarans were getting in here in a hurry. Or anyone else, without his permission, for that matter.

He looked around, frowning. The machinery here was more sophisticated than Earth in this time, but it was definitely still primitive in his opinion. A clone vat, teleport, and- now there was something interesting.

He walked slowly over to the table to which Martha Jones was bound, and frowned at her. What to do now? He'd intended to infiltrate the Sontaran base and find a way of stopping them, but it seemed this was not their base, just a staging post on Earth.

A few moments passed, then a sound alerted him to the teleport. It had been remotely disabled. Wonderful, now how would he get out of here? The Sontarans were probably still at the door. Communications, that was it. He needed to contact the Doctor.

x x x

Martha woke with a start, looking around the room in fear. "Hold still." a hatefully familiar voice said, far too calmly, "If you disconnect the machinery, the clone will die, and then how will I tell the Doctor to get down here and rescue you?"

She turned her head to glare at the Master with loathing, "What are you up to?"

"Playing a game." the Master said, smirking. He was working on a computer console, as he spoke, and didn't look at her. "I made a deal with the Sontarans. It was your clone who suggested it, actually. Then I double-crossed the Sontaran commander, in order to get in here- they don't know that was me, yet, so they still think I'm gonna try to help them kill the Doctor- and now I'm about to try to communicate with the Doctor to tell her exactly where we are and what I've found out so far."

"And what have you found out?" Martha hissed. For now, she complied with his instruction not to move, but she wouldn't do so for much longer without a good explanation.

"If the Sontarans wanted to declare war on humanity, Earth would be the newest asteroid belt in this star system, by now. I'm trying to get this piece of junk working, so I can access their ships' database, and find out more." he added, indicating the console he was working on, "But I'm sure the Doctor already suspects that I might have made a deal with the Sontarans, so I want to tell her what I'm really up to." Finally, he looked up at her, "And I'm sure she'll be happy to know you're still alive."

"How are you going to communicate with her?" Martha asked warily.

"That's where you being awake is important." the Master said, resuming what he had been doing to the controls. "But you're going to have to trust me."

"Fat chance."

"I thought as much." he said, smirking, "But it is the only way to contact her. Ah ha! I'm in!" he cheered, before typing furiously at the controls. Finally, he stopped, and stared for a second. "Wow, I did not see that one coming." he noted, but then laughed, "At least the Adipose were less genocidal about it. Does Earth have a big neon sign in orbit saying 'aliens please come here to breed'? Or is that just in the fifty-first century?"

Martha choked, "What?"

"They're planning on turning this planet into a clone-world, to grow new soldiers. Very complicated, totally reconfigure the atmosphere, wipe out humanity in the process, but still. If you're going to try a stunt like that, ATMOS is a very efficient way to do it. Can't fault them on strategy."

"Why couldn't they use an uninhabited planet?"

"Residual carbon energy." the Master said flatly. When Martha stared blankly at this, he explained, "The corpses help the clones grow stronger."

"That's disgusting!"

"Yes, it is." he said, smirking, "But think about it, you gain energy from the bodies of dead animals, how is this any different?"

"Because they're killing sentient beings!"

"So?" the Master asked, feigning confusion, "You ever eaten Chinese food?"

"Yes..."

"Cats are sentient."

Martha covered her ears and closed her eyes tight, "I'm not listening to this!" she shrieked. He had to be joking, right? About the Chinese food, at least. She hoped! She liked cats, cats were adorable animals, and if they really were sentient, that made the long-standing Earth joke about Chinese food even worse.

When she finally dared open one eye to see what was going on, she jumped in shock. The Master was standing right next to her now, though she hadn't heard him move. She lowered her hands from her ears, and glared at him.

"I need to establish a telepathic link, through your mind, to the clone." he said bluntly.

"You- you want to read my mind?" she asked warily.

"No. Although in theory I could read your mind through the telepathic link, I only want to contact the clone version of you." he leaned over her now, and gently- far too gently for the monster she saw him as- placed his right hand on the side of her face, so his fingertips rested on her left temple. "But I can't do this without your permission."

"Why not?"

"If you try to block me, it will hurt you. If I hurt you, the restraint band will hurt me."

She frowned, "Ok. I'll not stop you. Unless you try to read personal memories."

"Wouldn't dream of it." he said before pressing slightly harder against her temple, and she shivered as she felt his presence in her mind.

At first it was terrifying. He was so powerful, if he wanted to he could destroy her mind completely, and she knew it. But he was careful to avoid her memories, as she'd asked. She found herself unable to stop thinking about her time on the Valiant, but she almost immediately felt those memories slip away as he pushed them out of her consciousness. In a way, she was actually grateful for that.

"I don't need to be reminded of that, right now, thank you." she heard him whisper. She couldn't tell if he actively disliked the memories, or if he simply didn't want to be distracted.

It didn't take him long to find whatever was drawing on her mind to sustain the clone, and then it felt like he was far away from her, but still somehow within reach. Distantly, as if the physical world was so irrelevant right now, she felt his other hand, on the other side of her face, and when he pressed on her temple, the connection grew so much more intense. She cringed as he did this.

"Relax." he whispered, and she did so, instinctively. As if obeying his command was the most natural thing in the world. She knew that was wrong, was fully aware of the fact, but didn't seem able to care right now.

For a few seconds she heard that four-beat rhythm that she knew Archangel used to send its signal, but then it was replaced by something else. A deliberate but unfamiliar pattern. This was how he intended to communicate with the Doctor? She didn't understand. Somehow it didn't really matter the form of communication, she could somehow tell that his intentions were benign. Well, relatively... for him.

After a few more seconds, he released her from the connection, and she gasped, not having been aware of the fact that she had been holding her breath. She blinked a few times, then looked up at him, "That was... different." she said quietly.

He smirked, "Don't tell me you enjoyed that?"

"Um... no. No, I didn't." she said, too quickly. He didn't show any sign of noticing her discomfort, instead turning away and returning to the terminal he had been working on before. She was certain he was only pretending not to notice, and somehow that made her feel even worse.

x x x


	19. Sontar HA!

x x x

**Chapter 19: Sontar HA!**

x x x

The UNIT soldiers had retreated out of the factory. Interestingly, it had not been Colonel Mace who ordered the retreat, but a lower ranking soldier who had been deep within the facility at the time. The Colonel had been about to countermand the order, but the Doctor had talked him out of it.

Now, the Doctor stood outside, with Colonel Mace and several other UNIT soldiers, as the Valiant descended overhead. It was quite a brilliant sight, really. The turbine engines blew the poisonous gasses away, and it was possible to see clearly again.

But then she heard something else, a persistent tapping sound. A very familiar one. She turned to see the source of this sound. Martha- or the clone of Martha, anyway- was tapping her fingernails against the gas-mask she had just removed.

"You ok?" the Doctor asked her, in an undertone.

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine." she said, though something about her eyes seemed unfocused.

The tapping suddenly changed, as soon as she said it. It was a pattern similar to Morse Code, but invented on another world and therefore very unlikely for humans to decipher. Also, it was quicker, based on words rather than individual letters. '_I found her. Are you going to join the party, or what?_'

The Doctor rolled her eyes. So was that a direct link to the clone, through Martha's mind, or something using Archangel? Did she even want to know? Too bad she couldn't arrange for Archangel to be permanently disabled, or at least the part of it that allowed the Master control. Timelines, and all.

Trusting the Master to be helpful in the middle of chaos like this was like trusting a human child to sit still and do homework in a room full of toys, computer games and candy. It could happen, but the odds were strongly against it. There was a real possibility that the Master was sitting there having tea with the leader of the Sontarans right now, plotting the Doctor's gruesome demise.

"Valiant, fire at will!" Colonel Mace ordered, and the ship's main weapon fired down on the factory.

x x x

Both the Master and Martha looked up at the same time, as the factory itself shook. "That sounded like-" Martha started, but she didn't need to be interrupted to hesitate.

"The Valiant." the Master finished for her, his voice eager and slightly breathless, as if this was a very _very_ good thing, "Someone up there has some brains! Besides the Doctor, I mean. She's too pacifistic to order this." He closed his eyes for a second, then grinned brightly, "I hear gunfire." He quickly looked down at the controls he had been working on, and laughed, "Cordaline signal is still active. Someone up there has a _lot_ of brains. For a human." he added, glancing at Martha to see her reaction as he said that.

She didn't seem too put out by it, "That'll be Colonel Mace, then."

"I met him. He does seem smarter than the average ape, yes." the Master said, nodding. He quickly returned to Martha's side, and touched the side of her face again, "May I?"

She nodded, and closed her eyes as she felt him immediately press his fingertips to both her temples. He flew through her mind, this time, and straight to the clone. It was a frightening sensation. She witnessed as he almost totally crushed the clone's mind. Not destroying her, but binding her and dominating her. Taking her over completely, with a brutal efficiency that left no doubt that he had done this sort of thing before.

The restraint band? Didn't that hurt him?

_Yes. Yes, it did._

That scared her more than the act itself, the fact that he could get away with it, if he wanted to. Even thought it hurt him, he could endure the pain. He could do it to her as well.

_But I won't._

Now she became aware of a corridor, soldiers, the Doctor, and the Colonel running. Since when did she think of him by his title? It had always been Colonel Mace in her mind. Then she realised, that was the Master's thought, how he perceived it. She felt like she was running with them, but had no control over what she was witnessing, even though it did feel like her own body.

The Master searched for names, the names of the soldiers around her. She recognised two of them, Arnold and Dave. And as soon as she thought the names, she felt herself- but not herself- speaking, "Arnold, Dave, you're with us. Doctor, this way." and with a bright grin she had never used on her own face- it must be the Master's maniacally gleeful grin, she thought- she turned and ran down a corridor.

She stopped dead at a corner, and gave a signal to the soldiers to check if the coast was clear. Arnold peered around the corner, and ducked back quickly, as a weapon's blast shot past. Not good.

One of the Master's hands left her face, as she felt her own hand gesture for the soldiers to wait, ready to fight. A hissing sound, a door opening. She gave the order to attack. Both soldiers rushed around the corner, and fired. It echoed in her mind, she heard it twice, but at the same time. Neither soldier fell, no weapons' fire was returned.

Once they stopped shooting, she stepped around the corner, and saw the Sontarans, which had recently had their backs to the soldiers, laying dead on the ground. Six of them. Then she turned to face the soldiers, "Report to Colonel Mace, this area is secured." she ordered. The two soldiers saluted and quickly returned the way they had come.

She was watching them leave, when suddenly the scene vanished, and she once again gasped for air as the Master left her mind.

"You can take that machine off, now." he said calmly, before standing and walking away from her. She turned towards where the sound of gunfire had come from, and saw that the door now stood open. When she looked out, she saw the dead Sontarans. But much more unsettling, the clone of herself was laying on the ground beyond the Sontarans, not moving. The Master returned to the control panel before the Doctor came into view. She ran straight into the room, and when she reached Martha she hugged her, pulling the headgear off her as she did so.

"Oh, I was so worried about you!" she said, still hugging her.

"Why? What happened?" Martha asked, warily, "I thought the Master told you I was alright?" she asked, glaring over the Doctor's shoulder at the Master.

"I got that message, but when the clone collapsed..." she pulled back from the hug, and held Martha at arm's length, by the shoulders, scanning her face quickly, as if checking she really was alright.

"You thought I could achieve that level of direct control without breaking her?" the Master asked, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor.

"I was afraid you might break Martha as well." she hissed, finally letting go of Martha and turning to glare at him.

"Martha Jones is far stronger than any Sontaran-spawn. And she was willing. The clone resisted."

"So you raped and murdered her mind?" the Doctor demanded. Martha's eyes widened in shock at that thought.

"She was going to die soon after you freed Martha, anyway." the Master answered, dismissively. Clearly he did not care about the damage he may have done to the doomed clone. And he also didn't seem bothered in the slightest by the Doctor's choice of words.

The Doctor's phone rang at that moment, "Hey, Donna!" the Doctor cheered as she answered the phone, all trace of anger disappearing from her voice, though she still glared at the Master for one more second, before running over to the teleport, and beginning to examine its controls, "You got it?" After a brief hesitation, during which Donna must have been speaking, the Doctor continued talking into the phone, "Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside, flick them up like a fuse box. That should get the teleport working."

As soon as the Doctor set down the phone to apply both hands to the teleport controls, the Master spoke again, "Sontarans are here for the same reason as the Adipose."

The Doctor hit her head on the teleport console as she looked up at him sharply for this, "What?"

"Clone world."

"Brilliant." the Doctor muttered sarcastically, before going back to her work, "Explains ATMOS, I suppose. Caesofine concentrate? Clone-feed?"

"Mmhm." the Master slowly walked over to Martha, and sat next to her, no longer having anything productive to do while the Doctor worked on the teleport. Martha shot him a venomous glare, "What?" he asked defensively.

"What you did to the clone." Martha said coldly.

The Master stared at her, a mix of confusion and surprise on his face, for a second, before he seemed to realise what she meant, "Why is that word so much more offensive than evisceration, mutilation, decapitation? Death scares you less than rape?" she cringed at the last word, but as the Master rightly pointed out, not at the more fatal descriptions. "She only used that word as a weapon against me. A rather pathetic attempt to strike at a conscience she knows I murdered centuries ago."

Martha scowled, but the Doctor spoke now, "So how would you describe what you did?"

"A surgical attack. I cut through her mental defences and removed her willpower." the Master said calmly, "Far more deliberate and calculated than you implied." he turned to Martha, a rather cold stare as he watched her reaction carefully, "The concept the Doctor suggested could more accurately be described as a forceful theft of memories, an unwilling exchange of emotions. Very different."

"You... sound like you know what you're talking about." Martha muttered spitefully.

"From both perspectives." the Master answered bluntly.

Martha cringed slightly, looking away and frowning. She noticed the Doctor look up at the Master at that last remark, appearing slightly surprised by his admission.

Martha kind of understood the difference, now, though. She had witnessed the attack on the clone, and knew he had been very cold, detached from the damage he caused. A strategy, a carefully premeditated plan. Not exactly pleasant, but still. It was nothing like what he had just described to her.

Somehow, in spite of her desire to side with the Doctor, the Master's explanation did make more sense, though she chose not to voice that opinion. Even though she did agree with him, she would never admit to it.

And now, she realised she was shivering. The door was open, and she was wearing only a loose hospital-style gown... luckily not the sort without a back, but that didn't change the fact that it did nothing to keep her warm.

"You're freezing." the Master pointed out, still watching her reaction carefully. The fact she hadn't argued further about the clone probably did give away her real opinion on the subject, but she refused to admit as much. She was surprised when he removed his coat- that one he'd worn as Harold Saxon, with the red lining- and put it around her shoulders. As he did this, one hand brushed the back of her neck- she thought by accident- and she shivered again at just how cold his hand was. He smiled faintly, and added, "For a human, anyway."

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear you'd learned a few things from Captain Jack." the Doctor growled, not looking away from her work on the teleport machine.

"And people think _he's_ the one with the filthy mind." the Master sniped back, implying another thing Martha could agree with. That the Doctor really should keep such thoughts to herself!

x x x

A beeping from the direction of the clone drew their attention, "Get that." the Doctor said, not looking up.

"What am I, a dog? Fetch this, stay there." the Master grumbled, as he got up and walked over the dead clone. He didn't like the comparison, and that certainly wasn't the best retort he could have come up with if he'd really tried. He picked up the source of the beeping- a PDA- from the clone's jacket, and looked at it, "Do we want to launch a nuclear attack on the Sontarans? No, we don't." he pressed the no button, and then looked up at the Doctor, "Right?"

"Right." the Doctor said. She was holding the phone to her ear, while doing something to that teleporter with her sonic screwdriver. It was probably a smart move that she was standing well outside the teleport area as she did this, otherwise she would have been landed on by Donna, who appeared there an instant later. And the Doctor had to endure being hugged by her, too. Now, it wasn't anything specific against Donna, more a general loathing for the idea of hugging. At all.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?" Donna asked, and suddenly the Master got the impression that the human was actually _trying_ to break a rib or three with that hug. It took some effort for him to resist the desire to drag the red-head off the Doctor, to prevent her from succeeding in that goal, and he repeated to himself that he also hated her and she probably did something to deserve it.

"Hold on, hold on!" the Doctor said, trying to squirm out of the hug, "Get off me, Donna! Gotta bring the TARDIS down."

Donna did as she was asked, and the Doctor repeated whatever it was that had brought Donna through the teleport. There was no evidence of anything happening, but he could sense that she had definitely done something and by the air of smugness she was projecting, it had actually worked too.

"Alright, time to go, everyone!" the Doctor said, stepping onto the teleport pad, "Come on!"

Martha stared for a second, but then nodded and walked over to the teleport. The Master shrugged and complied without any question. It wasn't like _he_ had a choice in the matter, anymore. Donna, on the other hand, "We're not going back on that ship!" she demanded, stepping up onto the teleport anyway.

"Oh no, I needed to get the teleport working so we could go-" she activated the teleport, and in a flash they were standing in Rattigan Academy again, "-here. Rattigan Academy." she explained to the other two.

Unfortunately, their arrived was poorly timed- as usual, when the Doctor's involved, and totally unforgivable for a Time Lord, really- because Luke Rattigan was standing right in front of the teleport, pointing a gun at them. Most specifically at the Master.

"Don't tell anyone what I did!" Rattigan ordered, but his voice was shaking. He was completely terrified, "It wasn't my fault! The Sontarans lied to me!"

"Drop it." the Master snarled, putting a command into the word as he met the boy's eyes. The teen's hands spasmed as he resisted the order, but the gun clattered to the floor either way.

Rattigan backed away from them, holding his hands out to the sides defensively, "How-? I thought... it wasn't supposed to work like that!"

"Archangel was designed to enhance my existing abilities, Rat-boy." the Master said smugly.

He noticed the Doctor begin to run around the room, taking parts off of various machines, and decided to leave her to it. Last time they had tried working together on any sort of technology, both had felt the need to sabotage it against the other, and the resulting mess had been unpleasant to say the least.

He was watching what she was doing, though, and it only took about ten seconds for him to work out what she intended to do. Oh, the humans were probably clueless, but being far more intelligent than any of them and knowing the Doctor far better than them too, he could figure it out. An atmospheric converter. Well, it might work. There wasn't much else they could do for the Earth, at the moment.

"You told me once that you wanted to see other worlds." he noted, glancing at Rattigan.

"When did I do that?" the teenager demanded, glaring. That's right, he didn't remember.

"That was after I took over the Earth." the Master grinned as he said this, "So naturally, you wouldn't remember."

"Very active imagination, you've got there, Mr Saxon." Rattigan said coldly.

"Oh, it happened." Martha said, glaring at the teenager. She'd never met him, he'd remained on Earth during that 'time', but she must understand by now that he had conspired with the Master.

"Hmm. You really need to stop conspiring with alien invaders." the Master continued, as if he hadn't heard the boy's snide remark, "It'll get you killed, one of these days." Honestly, Rattigan really did think he was better than _everyone_, and it had not done his life expectancy any good to insinuate such thoughts in the presence of the Master. It was easy to imagine that the Sontarans were not much happier with his attitude.

Rattigan scowled at him, "Yeah, I get that." he grumbled, "It wasn't my fault!"

"Of course not." the Master sniped sarcastically, "Nothing ever is."

"You two can reminisce about your attempted world domination later." the Doctor pointed out coldly, as she began to assemble the device from the parts she had borrowed without permission. "Give me a hand here, Master."

The Master rolled his eyes, and joined her on the ground amid the scattered parts, and proceeded to hand her things in the correct order, as she put them together. He rather pointedly used only one hand to do this, but in all honesty, the part he played in this construction only really needed one hand anyway. Not that she didn't notice, and she smiled faintly when she saw how literally he had interpreted her request.

"What is that?" Donna asked, eyeing the machine they were constructing.

"Atmospheric converter." they both answered at the same time. They looked at each other for a fraction of a second, then the Master shrugged and the Doctor continued the explanation on her own, "The Sontarans were holding back the missile launch, because caesofine gas is volatile. Ground-to-air engagement could've sparked off the whole thing."

"What, like set fire to the atmosphere?" Martha asked.

"Basically, yes." the Doctor answered, briefly glaring at the part the Master had just handed her, "You call this helping?"

"You wanted this instead?" he asked, holding up a different component, and showing great scepticism as he spoke.

She nodded, "I have a system."

"There is something wrong with your mind." he growled, handing her the item she wanted, in spite of the fact it would make the device slightly less stable, even if it did make the entire process ten times easier. This system of which she spoke must be terminal laziness, he presumed.

"You're one to talk." she grumbled, before continuing her explanation to the humans, "They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army. And here we have everything anyone could ever want to settle on a new world." she spared the briefest glance at Rattigan, asking, "Planning a little trip, were we?"

"They promised me a new world." the boy all but whined.

"Gullible child." the Master noted, causing Rattigan to glare at him.

"And everything needed to settle on a new world includes this." she said as she stood, holding up the device she'd constructed.

"I have no intention of ever visiting any planet you terraform." the Master growled, earning a vicious glare from everyone in the room. "What? I don't trust her!"

"Feeling's mutual." the Doctor noted, too cheerfully, as she picked up the converter and ran outside, leaving the others with little choice but to follow.

x x x

The five of them stood on the front lawn of the Academy, looking out over London. By this time, some of the poisonous gas had even reached up this far, though it was a light mist as opposed to the thick and deadly fog that hung over the city. It wasn't even pretty. End of the world, it was supposed to go out with a bang, not this. Choking, drowning in the air. Suddenly Luke felt very sorry for himself. He was going to die, with them all, wasn't he?

What did this Doctor hope to achieve with some cobbled together bit of junk, anyway? An atmospheric converter wouldn't process caesofine into oxygen. Best case, it _would_ make them go out with a big dramatic fiery bang to spite the Sontarans. Somehow, Luke liked that idea, just a bit. Too bad he wouldn't survive that sort of thing.

"Pleased with yourself, now, Rat-boy?" Mr Saxon- no, he called himself the Master now- asked, glancing at him as he spoke. He wasn't angry, in fact he looked almost smug about the fact that Luke had gone and done something so monumentally stupid.

"Not so much." Luke admitted. He hated this entire situation. It wasn't his fault, damnit! The Sontarans lied to him! What was that, getting to be a mantra? Why did he need to repeat it? No, really don't want to go there.

"Would this have bothered you in the slightest, if the Sontarans had let you have your own little planet?" the Master persisted.

"I-" Luke hesitated, looking at the three women, who were talking amongst themselves, for a second, before shaking his head. He really wouldn't have cared, would he? But now... yeah, now it was bad. "I'm sorry."

The Master reached out and touched his shoulder, almost warily. Luke scowled at the hand. He didn't like being touched, didn't like other people, didn't like a lot of things he was fairly sure normal people were supposed to like. Including reality TV. Where did _that_ thought come from?

But then something- something really weird happened. He could still see what was happening in front of his eyes, kinda slowed down, almost stopped, but other things- memories- flew through his mind.

The sky ripped apart with terrible but beautiful red light. Millions of those things- they were called Toclafane, he remembered it from a television broadcast- swept the Earth, slaughtering all those unworthy animals that called themselves human. Raining death and destruction, far more spectacular than this stupid gas thing ever could hope to be.

And he sat, safe in his Academy, unharmed, watching. With popcorn, no less! Two whole months of memories followed, so quickly he had trouble processing it all, he wasn't in control, and he hated it. The Master really had ruled the world from the sky, and Luke had been one of his lieutenants on the surface of the Earth, giving out orders and being fearfully obeyed. But he in turn had no choice but to obey the Master.

But whether deliberately timed, or interrupted- he got the feeling it was deliberate, but wasn't sure why- the memories stopped abruptly, as the Doctor set off that atmospheric converter. He heard her whispering, "Please please please please." her fingers crossed, was she actually praying? He would too, right about now... if he believed in any form of god.

Luke blinked, shaking his head to bring himself back to the present, startled by this new revelation that the Master had shown him, but more interested in seeing what happened next to question it yet. If he lived to do so, he would ask. But right now...

The sky lit up with fire, just has he'd reasoned it should. The flames swept upwards, higher and higher, at a rough guess he'd say it hit the roof of the troposphere, far above any habitable level. And it sucked the caesofine gas up into it, somehow burning the poison up without pulling away any of the oxygen. He would have to ask the Doctor how the hell she did that!

The flames spread out in a wave, faster and faster, until they passed the horizon, and he guessed that they would easily keep going around the entire planet. It was truly spectacular!

"She's a genius!" he declared, stunned.

"Just brilliant." Martha agreed, sounding every bit as awestruck as Luke felt.

But then, "Now we're in trouble!" the Doctor said, frowning for half a second, before grabbing the converter and running back into the Academy.

He could guess what she meant. Sontarans, not happy, like war. Bad for us.

The other two women were already close behind the Doctor as Luke turned and ran after her, closely followed by the Master.

Once inside, the Doctor immediately set the converter down in the teleport, standing next to it, as she checked the setting on the teleport itself. He stopped dead, staring in surprise. What was going on now? He was a genius, damnit, he was supposed to be able to figure things out before other people came up with brilliant ideas, not be outsmarted and confused by anyone else. Ever.

The Master passed him, to stand as close to the teleport as possible without standing in it, "What are you doing?" the Master demanded.

She shot him a withering look, and he took two steps back almost instinctively. The Master feared her. Rightly so, Luke would guess, who wouldn't fear that icy gaze? Medusa herself would be jealous.

But when she turned to look at the other two women, she was suddenly so sad. It was then that both men realised what she was going to do. Ok, maybe not exactly what, but it had to be suicidally noble, it just had to be. "Don't you dare." the Master growled, but another glare silenced him.

The Doctor smiled sadly at the other two women- Luke had yet to catch either of their names- and when she spoke it was gentle, as if every single word was an apology, "Right, so... Donna, thank you. For everything. Martha, you too. Oh... so many times." her gaze turned to Luke, now, and with some irony and a hint of derision at his past choices she told him, "Luke, do something clever with your life."

He scowled at this, but didn't retort.

The red-haired woman- so he'd heard their names, he still didn't know which was which- spoke, now, "You're saying goodbye." Only just realised, did you?

"Sontarans are never defeated." the Doctor said simply, "They'll be getting ready for war. And, well, you know, I've recalibrated this for Sontaran air, so..."

"You're gonna ignite them." the darker girl said- it was a statement, not a question.

"You'll kill yourself." the red-head pointed out, as if the Doctor hadn't realised it.

"Just send that thing up, on it's own." the darker girl suggested, hopefully, but her tone showed how vain that hope was, "I don't know... put it on a delay."

"I can't." the Doctor answered.

"Why not?" the red-head demanded.

"I've got to give them a choice." she said sadly, pulling a pretty silver pendant off her neck, and looking at the two women for a second, before throwing the bit of jewellery to the red-head.

The Master seemed shocked at this action, as if the little shiny thing was incredibly important to him, but he spoke urgently as she threw it, "They're-" a word that shouldn't be pronounceable to human vocal chords, and Luke was sure it had to be a swear, "-Sontarans! They won't listen!"

The Doctor just shook her head sadly, before activating the teleport... and she was gone.

The Master turned away from the teleport pad and stormed across the room in a venomous rage, spouting a stream of words Luke had never heard but could easily guess were all very rude. He could imaging some very graphic descriptions of the Doctor's parentage, mental state, and possibly sexual preferences were in there somewhere, judging by the vehemence and inflection.

The two women were completely dumbstruck- and the red-head was staring in amazement at the bit of jewellery that had been given to her. It really must be important, Luke figured. The darker girl sank to the ground, staring in blank horror at thin air as the Doctor's actions sank in.

Luke seemed to be the only one left with objective thought, here.

He had a lot to make up for, he'd caused all of this. And the memories that the Master had unlocked in his mind- for they were most definitely his own memories- began to resolve themselves a little better, too. He'd done worse the last time. Maybe this time he could fix the mistake.

He ran over to the teleport, and checked its settings. There were a number of ways to do this. Simple reverse, but that would leave the Sontarans free to attack the Earth, with no weapon to stop them. Pull the Doctor back, leave the device, but that was no good without a timer. Go up there himself, add a timer, try to bring the Doctor back, but she'd never accept that, he would bet his life on it.

That was it. His life for hers. She was certainly better than him, morally, intellectually, socially. Hell, she was even better looking, he'd admit!

He quickly began to recalibrate the teleport as two-way, bring her down, send him up, leave the machine. Easy enough. Link this wire in to that system, cross these two wires, and pull out those three failsafes. Yep, easy.

"What are you doing?" the darker girl asked, her voice sounded despondent and lost, but he didn't look at her, didn't want to see her face.

Luke smiled morbidly, "Something clever." he said as he picked himself up. He spared only half a second to glance at the rest of the room- the last time he would ever see his Academy, his home- before pressing the teleport button and leaving the Earth. Forever.

He arrived on the Sontaran ship, feeling an unpleasant disturbance in the teleport- two-way wasn't nice, he could sense the Doctor pass him in the matter-stream, which was a bit creepy- and saw the device she had held before being pulled away. He just caught it, reflexively, before he'd even fully registered where he was, and then he recognised the battle-chant around him.

"Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!" Something crossed his mind, in that weird way where the rest of the universe stands still as he can see it. Flashing blades and cruel laughter. He'd died before. The Master had killed him... well, ordered him executed. It had never happened, but somehow he knew it was still real. This time it would be for a reason, on his own terms.

The Sontarans stopped their chant as they saw him, and now he could hear the countdown, it was so close, "Five, four, three-" And no one would live to remember it, but you've got to have a parting line, it's like a rule.

"Sontar? Ha!" he shouted, slamming his hand onto the button to end them.

And in a blinding flash, everything was gone.

x x x

The Doctor landed inelegantly on her backside, in the teleport pad, back at Rattigan Academy. One moment, she's threatening Sontarans, the next... someone teleported up to stop her, she had felt the fact that someone had passed her in the teleport. She looked around in mild confusion. Martha, check. Donna, check. Master, check. That means... Rattigan.

An instant after she'd realised this, she felt the explosion overhead. Not heard, it _was_ in outer space, after all. But the deaths of such a large number, clones, enemies, invaders, they may have been, but it still hurt to sense their demise. And Luke Rattigan, lost amidst the screams of the Sontarans, or maybe his mind hadn't cried out at the end?

"Do you really have a death wish?" the Master shouted at her, stalking forward threateningly until he was looming over her. He really looked like he wanted to hit her, "We both knew that they wouldn't listen, but you just had to play the martyr! You were willing to kill yourself and-!" he stopped himself, still glaring down at her. She could literally feel as he reigned in his emotions, and when he spoke again it was quiet, cold and no longer angry but hurt, "And you didn't think how that would effect anyone else, did you?" he glanced over his shoulder at the two humans in the room, but then shook his head, and walked away from her.

Slowly, she moved to sit on the edge of the now dead teleport pad. Without the Sontaran ship to power it, this was now a relatively useless piece of extra-terrestrial junk. Martha hurried over to hug her, and try to comfort her. Donna, on the other hand, when she approached, hit the Doctor rather sharply on the arm, before sitting down next to her as well.

The Master kept his distance, arms folded defensively across his chest. She could still feel the anger in his mind, even though he fought not to show it. But worse than that, he really was hurt by her actions. His relief at her continued existence far outweighed his anger. The Doctor had known for centuries that the Master didn't want her dead, but she hadn't realised that he genuinely cared for her so strongly.

After several long seconds of silence, however, he was the first of them to speak, "Why Donna?"

"Would you have preferred Martha?" the Doctor asked, holding out her hand to Donna without even looking at her, asking for the pendant to be returned to her. Donna complied with this without complaint. She got the feeling Donna hadn't wanted that responsibility, anyway.

"No, but that was precisely why I expected you to give it to her." the Master said, shrugging and seeming to relax a little, after his outburst. He wasn't one for showing genuine emotions, and she was sure that he was now trying to cover for his lapse in self-control.

"I don't trust you, doesn't mean I hate you." she answered, shrugging.

x x x

Back on the TARDIS, while UNIT cleared up another Doctor-related mess. Just as they had done after the paradox, and just as they undoubtedly would need to do again before long. The Master had claimed the couch, once more, and Martha was loitering near the doorway, alternately shooting vicious glares at the Master or looking around the control room with evident nostalgia.

Donna had just returned, and the Doctor looked up from the console as Donna addressed Martha with the obvious question, "So! You gonna come with us? We're not exactly short of space."

Martha shook her head, "Oh, I have missed all this, but, you know, I'm good here. Back at home. On Earth. And I'm better for having been away." she glanced at the Master once more, before adding, "My family still needs me, and UNIT needs me as well, now. Someone's gotta do the Doctor's job on their payroll while she's off having fun with you two."

"It's not all fun." the Master pointed out, "Even I dislike the particularly high level of mortal peril involved."

"Shut it, space man." Donna snapped over her shoulder. Martha laughed when he actually complied with Donna's demand.

The Doctor looked up from the console, taking a step back, folding her arms and smirking at the Master, agreeing wholeheartedly with Martha's amusement there.

Martha hugged Donna, and gave her final goodbye with the words, "Just don't turn your back on him."

"Or let me near a tennis racket." the Master added brightly, causing the Doctor to laugh and the two humans to give them both very confused looks.

"Really wouldn't let him near any potential melee weapons, anyway, even if I don't get the joke." Martha said edgily, but with a slight smile, before turning to leave.

Just as she faced the doors, they slammed shut. Half a second later, the TARDIS started to shake. They were travelling through the Vortex, but the Doctor had been standing back from the controls when it happened.

"Doctor, don't you dare!" Martha shouted, catching hold of a railing to steady herself.

"No, no, no! I didn't touch anything!" the Doctor defended, checking the readouts, "It wasn't me!"

"Where are we going?" Donna asked, also holding onto a railing not far from Martha.

The Master had actually fallen off the couch, and pulled himself to his feet by the edge of the console. It was a miracle that the Doctor kept her balance, still standing at the controls, as she shouted back, "I don't know, we're out of control!"

"Doctor, just listen to me!" Martha yelled, "You take me home, take me home right now!"

x x x


	20. Generated Anomaly

x x x

**Chapter 20: Generated Anomaly**

x x x

"Doctor, just listen to me!" Martha yelled, "You take me home, take me home right now!"

"Couldn't agree more." the Master said coldly, very carefully edging away from Martha, which was difficult, considering the TARDIS appeared to be trying to throw them all away from the console. Made all the more infuriating by the fact that he knew he would get a shock from the neural restraint if he accidentally touched any of the dials or switches there. "I don't need her around screeching in my ear. That's what you picked Donna up for."

"Oi! Watch it, you!" Donna snapped from the far side of the console. He wasn't sure if she was genuinely offended, or recognised by now when he was half-joking. He really didn't care, either. "Either of you two geniuses care to tell me what's going on, then?" she added, directing the question mostly at the Doctor.

"Controls aren't working." the Doctor said, trying to use one of said controls and getting a face-full of sparks from the console for her trouble.

She was thrown away from the console, and went flying right into the Master, who landed painfully on the metal floor. The Doctor rolled off him immediately, and then glanced past him, "I don't know where we're going but my old hand's very excited about it!"

"Very good thing Jack isn't here right now." the Master muttered. This earned him a smack on the arm, before the Doctor tried to help him stand again.

"I thought that was just some freaky alien thing! You telling me it's yours?" Donna demanded.

"Sort of." the Doctor muttered, "Yes."

"It got cut off. He grew a new one." Martha added helpfully. The Master couldn't help but note the choice of pronoun there. So either she had slipped up, or the hand-thing had happened before the accident, then. Most likely the latter, since it would have to have been soon after a regeneration to do that.

"You are completely impossible!" Donna snapped.

"Nothing's impossible." the Master said, having made it over to the couch. Now he was holding on to that to avoid being thrown around the room by the misbehaving TARDIS, "The Doctor's just very very improbable."

"That's it, I'm confiscating those books." the Doctor sniped.

"Too late, read them all." he retorted brightly.

And finally, with much noise and more sparks flying, the TARDIS landed. Really, she could have been more polite about it, even if she _had_ just hijacked the lot of them and taken them who knew where or when, without anyone telling her to. But it's not like the older models were ever that reliable to begin with.

"OW!" the Master yelled, as the Doctor once again fell on top of him, this time she had landed her full weight on his right foot. For being- as Donna described- a stick-insect, she wasn't exactly weightless.

Without even bothering to apologise, the Doctor leaped up and zoomed to the door, opening it with the eagerness of a small child offered one of their- insert random Earth gift-giving holiday here- presents early. Then she stared in confusion for a full minute, while the other two women picked themselves up and followed her.

Knowing he would get into more trouble than it was worth if he stayed in the TARDIS alone, even if he didn't actually try to do anything evil, the Master sighed and followed them. Out into a rather derelict and deserted underground corridor full of junk and bits of machinery.

"Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" the Doctor asked, staring around her.

"Oh I love this bit." Martha whispered excitedly.

"Thought you wanted to go home?" Donna asked.

The Master watched with some amusement as the Doctor looked around, trying to figure out where they were, and why they were here. She had the strangest ways of figuring these things out, and he would make a very rude remark about her obsession with licking things, if he wasn't absolutely certain at least two of the women present would slap him for it. Probably all three, actually.

"I know, but all the same." Martha said, shrugging innocently. "It's that feeling you get."

"Like you swallowed a hamster?" Donna suggested brightly. Aww, another rude comment he couldn't make because he didn't want to be slapped by any of these three, least of all Donna.

He was distracted, however, by the appearance of half a dozen soldiers, making enough noise to distract even the Doctor from her attempts to identify what planet they were on from this one tunnel.

"Don't move, stay were you are! Drop your weapons." what appeared to be the leader of the soldiers demanded.

All the weapons anyone in this corridor held were aimed at the three women and the Master, however. The Master, who had already been leaning against the side of the TARDIS with his arms folded defensively before the soldiers arrived, did not move. Just glared.

The Doctor raised her hands, showing she was unarmed, "We're not armed! Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. See?" Martha and Donna also raised their hands, taking a lead from the Doctor like good little companions.

"Look at their hands. They're clean." one of the soldiers pointed out. Wouldn't count on the Doctor's hands being clean, after her attempt to search the tunnel, but the Master decided not to argue with the people pointing guns at him. He remained silent, for now. He idly noticed more of the guns were aimed at him than at anyone else. Probably because he had yet to show signs of deference or surrender. Or maybe because his hands were still concealed- if he still had his laser screwdriver, it would already be in one hand, just waiting for the least excuse to kill the lot of them. He didn't care why they were aiming their weapons at him, really. What did bother him was the fact that they had not yet given an explanation, rather than what that explanation could be.

"Alright, process them!" the leader of the soldiers ordered. Since the Doctor was closest, she was seized first.

"Wait a minute, what are you going to do to her?" he snapped, taking a step forward. Bad idea, several of the weapons were now primed, instead of just aimed. He backed down, glaring daggers at them. Oh, if only he had been allowed to own a weapon. But no, the Doctor was too much of a pacifistic fool to allow it. Well, that and she didn't trust him. Rightly so, too, if he really thought about it.

"Yeah, what's wrong with clean hands?" the Doctor demanded.

"Will one of you tell us what's going on?" Martha snapped. She obviously disliked agreeing with the Master on anything, but it couldn't really be helped here.

"Leave her alone!" Donna added her rather unhelpful voice to the situation.

The Doctor yelped as her hand was forced into a nearby machine she hadn't gotten around to investigating before the soldiers had arrived. "Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure." she muttered, before wincing in pain as it started to do something.

"What is that thing?" Donna demanded.

"Everyone gets processed." the leader of the soldiers said flatly, as if this should make sense to them.

The Doctor frowned, biting back any sign of pain, as she concentrated. She was trying to figure out what was being done to her, as well. She let out a low hiss, before pulling her hand away from the machine as it released her, and she proceeded to glare at it with a great deal of venom. "Not funny." she muttered, before glaring past the Master, right at the TARDIS, which now exuded an air of amused smugness, "This is your fault." she added coldly.

He laughed, and asked, "What was that?"

"Some sort of cosmic joke at my expense, I think." she replied, flexing her hand and now glaring at it.

"Are you alright?" Martha asked, stepping over to the Doctor and looking at a mark on the back of her hand.

Then the larger machine right next to whatever the soldiers had put the Doctor's hand in whirred, and a door opened on it. Suddenly, it clicked in the Master's mind, what the Doctor had accused of being a joke at her expense, and he doubled over laughing.

"It's not that funny." the Doctor hissed, angrily. He managed to bite back the laughter, right before a pretty blonde woman stepped out of the machine, with an unnecessarily dramatic amount of smoke and backlighting.

Before anyone else could say anything, the leader of the group of soldiers handed the woman a gun, which she handled as if she'd spent a lifetime in an army. She was literally born a soldier.

The Master sauntered cheerfully over to stand next to the Doctor and muttered in her ear, "Congratulations, it's a killing machine."

"Bite me." she snapped.

"Only if you ask nicely." he retorted.

"Where did she come from?" Martha asked, confused.

The Doctor shot a glare at the Master that said quite clearly, 'one word and you'll regret it', before answering Martha's question, "From me." she said coldly, now watching as the blonde woman checked and armed the gun, giving the impression she could probably disassemble and reassemble the thing in her sleep.

"From you?" Donna asked, clearly confused, "How? Who is she?"

"Technically, I guess... she's my daughter."

The blond looked up with a smile, and said, "Hello, mum."

The Master started laughing again, and he really didn't care that everyone in the corridor was glaring at him now. It was funny, he couldn't help that fact. The Doctor seemed thoroughly taken aback at being called 'mum'. As if she hadn't had enough time to get used to being female, suddenly with absolutely no warning at all she was a mother. He found it utterly hilarious.

Finally, Donna smacked him upside the head, "You're being rude again."

"I do tend to do that." the Master said, and he suddenly had a perfectly straight face again. It must have given the humans the impression that he'd been faking the laughing fit, but really, he just had an annoying amount of self-control when he chose to exercise it.

The Doctor's daughter approached the soldiers. Whatever pre-programmed knowledge the machine had given her, she clearly recognised her superior officer.

"You primed to take orders, ready to fight?" the lead soldier asked.

The woman nodded, "Instant mental download of all strategic and military protocols, sir. Generation five thousand soldier primed and in peak physical health." she saw the look on her superior officer's face, and blinked, "Oh, I'm ready."

"I see the resemblance." the Master noted a bit too brightly.

"How is she your daughter?" Martha asked.

"Progenation." the Doctor said, indicating the machine, "Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement, and grow. Very quickly, apparently."

"Something's coming!" the woman said, turning to face down the tunnel, past the TARDIS.

And a group of fish-people turned the corner at the far end and began shooting at them. The humans fired back. "It's the Hath!" the lead soldier declared. As if that made any difference. It's something shooting. At them. That's bad, whoever the hell it is.

"Get down!" the woman ordered, mostly directed at the Doctor, who pulled Donna back behind some rubble that could pass for cover in a fire-fight. The Master took her advice, too, deciding he really preferred his body without bullet-holes, thankyouverymuch.

"We have to blow the tunnel! Get the detonator!" the lead soldier ordered.

The Master, who was closer to the only object in the tunnel that theoretically could possibly be a detonator, immediately picked it up and threw it to the soldiers. Blowing things up. This would be fun.

But then, one of the Hath grabbed Martha, before she could join the rest of them, and began to pull her down the corridor. The Doctor tried to go after her, but was held back by a solider.

"Blow the tunnel!" the lead soldier ordered.

"Martha! No, don't!" the Doctor shouted, struggling against the obviously stronger solider. The Doctor always did get all mopey and whiney when he lost a companion, for whatever reason. Martha's death would probably put her in a bad mood for months.

The Master did _not_ want to deal with that when he was her prisoner. Definitely not. "Oh, I'm going to regret this." he grumbled, before leaving cover, and charging towards Martha and the Hath that had grabbed her.

Time Lords were not physically any stronger or weaker, on average, than a human... but they had other advantages. Time itself literally slowed around him as he ran, so he got to her in about two seconds, instead of the seven or eight it would take even the fastest human sprinter to cover the same distance. It was cheating, declared illegal according to the Gallifreyan High Council, but they all got blown up, so who really cares anymore?

He caught the two beings as the explosion detonated right behind him, and kept running, throwing them further down the corridor. Just in time, too. He idly wondered if his own presence had endangered Martha more than the explosion itself, she could have been several feet further back if he hadn't reacted so eagerly to the order to get the detonator. Just because he wanted to see something get blown up.

Never mind that, now, though. _Ow!_

He looked to see a bit of debris had landed on his already uncomfortable right foot. First the Doctor, now a piece of masonry. He pulled the heavy piece of rock off his foot and took out the cheap sonic pen the Doctor had let him have... but it must have been broken when he fell, because it sparked and did nothing when he set it to heal. Bloody worthless piece of junk! He picked himself up quickly, resisting the urge to kick the offending piece of stone, because that would only injure him more.

He carefully tested his weight, and decided he could walk ok, but it would hurt. He truly despised showing weakness, so he would endure the pain instead.

Then he looked around, and saw that Martha was tending to the injured Hath. She was muttering to herself, "Half fish, half human, how'm I supposed to know? Is that a shoulder? Feels like a shoulder. I think it's dislocated."

"You do realise they were shooting at us, just a minute ago." the Master noted, approaching the pair anyway. Every step hurt his right foot slightly, but he refused to either limp or allow the pain to show.

"I'm aware of that." she snapped, but then she froze, looking up at a group of six more Hath that had arrived and pointed more weapons at them both. The Master rolled his eyes, and was tempted to say 'I told you so', but Martha gave the Hath a stern glare, and said clearly, "I'm trying to help him! I am a doctor and he is my patient, and I'm not leaving him!" When they made no move to either fire or back down, she turned to the injured one, "Now, this is gonna hurt. One, two, three!" And she snapped its dislocated shoulder back into place.

Weapons were primed, but the injured Hath spoke to them in a language even the Master didn't recognise. Probably had something to do with the gurgling of their breathing apparatus. They lowered their weapons.

"Now, then. I'm Doctor Martha Jones. Who the hell are you?"

Whatever their response was, it was unintelligible, even to the Master, who scowled, "Either the TARDIS is being a stubborn little bitch again, or she doesn't know their language." Martha glared at him, but didn't say anything. "It could be both." he added unhelpfully.

Martha rolled her eyes, and slowly stood to face the Hath more directly, "Cliche, I know, but... take me to your leader?"

The Hath conversed amongst each other, before one nodded and beckoned for them to follow.

x x x

Between the Doctor suddenly having a fully-grown gun-toting daughter, the TARDIS- as the Master so aptly worded it- being a stubborn little bitch, the Master choosing to save her life for some inexplicable reason, and now these aliens who had been shooting at her a few minutes ago suddenly wanting to make friends, Martha Jones was understandably a bit confused.

The Hath were actually very friendly, now that they weren't pointing weapons at her. All of them had petted her hair, which she assumed to be a positive greeting. The Master had rather pointedly glared when they had attempted to greet him in a similar manner, "I don't do physical contact with humans, if I can avoid it. What makes you think I want to be touched by anyone else, either?"

The Hath had hesitated, and spoken to each other for a few seconds, before simply nodding their fishy heads to him, in what must have passed for acceptance of his request not to be touched.

"Do you always have to be so rude?" Martha asked him.

"I thought I was very polite about that, actually." he retorted.

She rolled her eyes, and decided it was probably best to just not talk to him for now. Would never do to ignore him, far too dangerous, but she didn't have to listen to him.

It was slow going, communicating with the Hath leaders, but at least the Hath could understand what Martha and the Master were saying, and responded with gestures that were relatively easy to decipher. Eventually they managed to convey the fact that the war had gone on for so many generations that none of them could remember the cause of it. The Hath wanted it to end, but the humans weren't giving them any opportunity to ask for peace, every time the two races met there was fighting and death.

"I can see why they're so happy to find a non-hostile human." the Master said, smirking, "You could go and negotiate peace for them."

The Hath leader nodded enthusiastically, and his fellows made gurgling noises which most probably translated as excited babble. One, however- the one who Martha had helped earlier- stepped forward, quizzically, and asked an unintelligible question.

"I'm not human." the Master said simply, guessing what it had most likely asked.

"He's really not." Martha agreed, when the Hath murmured amongst each other in confusion and disbelief.

"So how do we get to the human-inhabited areas?" the Master asked, "Because that is undoubtedly where those soldiers took the Doctor and Donna."

The Hath that Martha had rescued led them both over to a map, which showed a network of tunnels. Her new Hath friend gestured to this map. One section was marked with a green dot, another similar area was marked with a red dot.

"Right. So we're here?" she asked, pointing to the green mark. The Hath nodded, and Martha pointed to the red mark, "And I guess that's the human camp?" Another nod.

She glanced up to see the Master had wandered off. Two Hath were watching him carefully, as he examined one of the machines lining the walls. They were the same as the one in the tunnel that that soldier woman had come out of. "Tempting..." she heard him mutter, but he didn't actually touch the thing, as if he was afraid of what might happen if he did.

When she looked back to the map, more tunnels had appeared, "Hold on, look!" she said, drawing the Master's attention, as well as the Hath. "That's a new map. There's a different set of tunnels! Have you seen these before?" she asked her new friend. The Hath shook its head.

Other Hath were now examining the new tunnels, and began cheering in their gurgling and unintelligible voice. "But, I didn't do anything!" Weapons were raised, and what must have been a battle chant rose up around the room. Martha was getting scared now. What did these tunnels mean? "I think I just started a war." she whispered.

The Master stepped up to the map, next to her, "No you didn't." he was grinning, that evil maniacal grin that implies he thinks something cruel is very funny, "There's a triple-wave signal, originating from the human camp. The Doctor revealed those tunnels." his grin broadened, "Between soldier-girl and now this, she is _never_ going to hear the end of it."

"You really are a petty creature, aren't you?" Martha asked coldly.

"I'm still smarter than you, human." he retorted, but that just caused Martha to take on a morbidly victorious expression.

"Like I said, petty."

Just then, her phone rang. "Took her long enough." the Master muttered.

Martha shot him a glare, then answered the phone, "Doctor?"

"Martha! You're alive!" the Doctor replied, happily.

"Doctor! Oh, am I glad to hear your voice! Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm with Donna, we're fine, what about you?" Then she heard a voice she couldn't make out in the background, probably Donna, and after a second the Doctor added, "And, and Jenny... That's the woman from the machine, the soldier, my daughter, except she isn't, she's, she's-" obviously she wasn't sure of how to say what Jenny actually was, so she dropped that subject, "Anyway! Where are you?"

"I'm fine, too, by the way." the Master said, loud enough to be heard on the other end of the phone, Martha was sure, "Thanks for asking."

Martha rolled her eyes, "We're in the Hath camp. We're okay, but, something's going on. The Hath are all marching off to some place that's appeared on this map thing. This one thinks you did it."

"I have a name, you know." the Master pointed out.

"Yeah, and I'll call you that when hell freezes over." Martha sniped.

"Yes, um, that was me, yes." the Doctor sounded suitably ashamed of herself for revealing the map, "If both armies are heading that way, there's going to be a bloodbath."

"What do you want me to do?" Martha asked, immediately businesslike.

"Just stay where you are, if you're safe there then don't move." the Doctor ordered.

"But I can help." Martha protested, but the phone beeped to indicate the call had ended, "Doctor? Doctor!"

She grit her teeth and pulled a face, biting back the urge to swear. Sometimes the Doctor could be so... infuriating.

"You know, unlike me, you have the prerogative to ignore her orders. And she never told _me_ to stay put." the Master said, in that smooth tone he tended to use when he was trying to talk someone into doing something against what they knew was right. Too bad for him, she'd been thinking that she should disobey, anyway. Waste of effort on his part, but she chose not to mention that to him.

She shook her head, instead, and turned to the one Hath that had stayed behind. Her new friend.

x x x

It took several minutes for Martha to come up with a plan. Oh, he could have helped, but he didn't feel like it. Instead, he had disassembled one of those progenation machines' DNA sample systems, and wasted his time figuring out how it worked. Which actually didn't take as long as Martha took to figure out what she wanted to do next.

"There's even more, in 3D." she declared, finally drawing his attention away from trying to disassemble the main part of the machine he'd been investigating, "Oh, you're a clever Hath! So this is where everybody's headed? But look, those tunnels sort of zigzag. If I went up and over the surface in a straight line, I'd get there first."

Her Hath friend complained about this.

"Why not?" she asked.

The Hath pressed some buttons, bringing up some readouts from the surface. Radiation and low levels of toxic chemicals in the atmosphere. Would be ok in small doses, but not a good idea to stay out there for long. Even from where he was sitting with various pieces of machinery around him, he could clearly see it was not an ideal vacation spot.

"Are these readings of the surface?" Martha asked, "Well it doesn't look too bad. Nitrogen and oxygen about eighty-twenty, that's fine. Ozone levels are high. And some big radiation spikes. But as long as I'm not out there too long..."

The Hath questioned her, most likely why she would want to risk her life, or at least her health, to get there before the soldiers.

"I have to find my friends." she answered. The Hath looked right at the Master, now. "Oh, no. He's not my friend."

"The feeling is mutual." he snarked at her, finally picking himself up from where he had been sitting, and dropping the circuit-board he had been reading as if it had been a book on the floor with absolutely no care whatsoever. "So, let's all go get radiation poisoning." he said cheerfully. He was only joking, but still Martha glared at him.

Then she turned and led the way out of the Hath base. Her little Hath friend spoke again, and she turned to look at it, recognising the expression and body-language as asking if it could come with her. "Come on, then." she said brightly.

The Master followed, seriously considering trying to find where the Doctor kept that mallet she'd used during Donna's driving lessons, and threatening the TARDIS with some 'redecoration' for not using her translation circuits.

When they found the hatch up to the surface, the Hath seemed to be having second thoughts, "Do we really need the fish-man with us?" the Master asked coldly.

She shot him a venomous glare, that clearly told him to shut the hell up, then turned to the Hath, "You can stay down here and live your whole life in the shadows, or come with me and stand in the open air. Feel the wind on your face. What's it gonna be?" The Hath hesitated, unsure. "It's up to you. But nothing's gonna stop me." Martha added.

The Master had already opened the hatch, and shouted down, "Beautiful weather up here." rather sarcastically. It was completely barren, freezing cold, smelled horrible, and the wind was kicking up dust into his face. He did not like it at all. Yes, living in the shadows suddenly held a great deal more appeal.

Martha climbed up out of the tunnels, and the Hath followed her. "I knew you couldn't resist." she said to it, grinning. She paused to look up at the three moons overhead. They were relatively pretty, if you looked at them without the knowledge that their gravitational pull was causing most of this infernal wind.

The Hath said something which, in spite of not understanding its language, the Master could tell by the intonation and note of awe that it was an expletive, of the sort where a human might have said 'bloody hell' or 'holy shit'.

Apparently Martha picked up on it, too, "Er, language!" she said, laughing, "Come on."

And she led the way in the direction the map had said they needed to go.

x x x

"How long have you two been travelling, since the Valiant?" Martha asked, as they walked across the barren world. The Hath wasn't far behind them, just enough to not hear what she intended to be a private conversation.

The Master glanced at her, "What does that matter?"

She frowned slightly, as she asked, "Between something you didn't say at Rattigan Academy- smooth recovery, by the way- and her reaction to that machine-"

"Progenation machine." the Master corrected automatically, guessing where this was going and hoping for an opportunity to distract her from the thought.

"It makes me wonder..."

"Three months." he said bluntly.

Martha frowned, "You already know what I'm trying to ask, don't you?" he didn't answer that. "Am I right?"

"It's possible." he said flatly.

"When?" Martha asked, scowling. The Doctor had denied any such insinuations made by either herself or Jack, after they had escaped the Valiant.

"Why do you care?"

"It can't have been on the Valiant." Martha said simply.

"Why not?"

"There would be other signs."

"You're talking about a member of the same species that designed the TARDIS."

Martha stopped in her tracks for a moment, and stared at thin air, "Oh."

x x x

The Master allowed both of them to walk ahead of him, and only when neither of them were looking at him, did he allow himself to lean more on his uninjured foot, limping slightly. This was definitely one of those days where he ended up wanting to viciously maim the Doctor for refusing to allow him to wait in the TARDIS and watch T.V.

Just as he was thinking this, Martha turned to check that he was still following, and she must have noticed the limp, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." he hissed, annoyed at his own failure to hide this minor weakness.

"You're limping." Martha noted bluntly.

"Yes, well that will tend to happen when a piece of the ceiling lands on your foot." the Master snarled.

"You've been injured since the cave-in, and you didn't say anything?"

"What would you have done?" he asked coldly, "At worst, it's a fracture, and with the limited resources available, what exactly would you be able to do to fix that? A broken foot is _not_ going to kill me."

"You still could have said." she muttered, frowning, "Were we going too fast, or-?"

"No!" he snapped, "I can probably outrun you even with this minor injury. In case you didn't notice, earlier, I can move very quickly when necessary."

She frowned, "I did notice. I also noticed you saving my life."

"Please, don't mention that. Seriously, don't." he hissed, before walking away in the direction they had been headed, not allowing himself to limp now.

She jogged to catch up, "And here I was just about to thank you, and all." she said, before walking on ahead again, not giving him a chance to respond to that.

x x x

Martha was a bit preoccupied, now, wondering why the Master had even bothered to save her, and why it seemed to annoy him so much when she brought the subject up. She'd expected him to rub it in her face at the first opportunity. To gloat about it. Instead, he didn't want to talk about it at all.

She sighed, and called over her shoulder, "It can't be much further."

But the second she took her eyes off the ground she had been picking her way across, she tripped over a rock, and slid down a steep slope. She wasn't sure what she'd landed in, but it was bubbling and slimy. Maybe this world's version of quicksand. It smelled _awful!_

"Help! Help, I'm sinking!" she shouted, struggling to get out.

The Master picked his way down the slope carefully, while the Hath skidded down to land next to the bog, or whatever it was. "Stop fighting it, or it'll pull you down faster."

"I'm not even sure this stuff works like that!" Martha shouted back, but she did as he suggested anyway.

"You've stopped struggling, and now you're sinking slower. It works like that." he snapped, looking around for something to pull her out with. The Hath was already trying to reach her, from the edge of the slime-pit, holding onto an outcrop of rock to prevent itself from getting pulled in with her, but it couldn't get close enough to her.

He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically, "She'll kill me if I don't at least try..." she heard him mutter, before he stepped into the slime, grabbing the Hath's hand and leaning out towards her. She caught his hand, and he pulled. The smell somehow got even worse as she was drawn out of the stinking bog, and she saw him flinch in pain as he leaned back onto his injured foot to pull her up onto solid ground.

"Twice in one day." Martha said, laughing as she sat on a nice solid rock, catching her breath, "Who are you, and what have you done with the Master?"

He laughed weakly, wiping off slime from where she had touched his hand, onto his leg, clearly disgusted, "You're welcome." he said, before adding in perfect seriousness, "And you owe me new shoes."

She looked at his feet, to see that the slime had stained his trousers up to the knees, and she laughed, "Fair enough."

"So as you were saying, before you decided to go for a swim, in what could be compared to mammoth dung for the smell-"

"Well now I know what mammoth dung smells like. Not that I wanted to." she muttered, causing the Master to snort with laughter, before he continued to speak.

"-we're almost there now." he finished brightly, "Shall we?" he gestured, politely, almost cheerfully, towards the large- was it a building or a crashed ship? she wasn't sure, but she'd guess it was a ship if she had to- they had been headed to.

"Yes, let's." she said, joining in the joking imitation of proper etiquette. The Hath looked like he would have been smiling, maybe laughing, if his face and voice were capable of it, right now.

x x x

They reached the entrance to the ship without any further incident, and Martha led the way down. A couple of corridors, and they ran right into the Doctor and Donna. And soldier-girl, who immediately had a gun drawn on the Hath that had followed them down here.

The Master glanced at the fish-man, and pointedly remained between it and soldier-girl. She hesitated, lowering the gun. He was smirking, that cruel smile that puts off even the most confident of military types. Always worked on UNIT. She glanced at the Doctor, and so did he. Martha and the Doctor were hugging, then Martha went on to hug Donna.

"Oooh, you're filthy, what happened?" Donna demanded.

"She went swimming." the Master said, smirking.

"We took the surface route." Martha amended, glaring at him, "Something like quicksand. Nothing too serious."

"Tell that to my shoes." the Master snarked.

"This jacket wasn't cheap, you know." she retorted. Both were grinning, now, as if it had somehow turned into a game, instead of the genuine hatred it had been before.

"Doctor." soldier-girl said warily, before gesturing towards the Hath.

"He's our friend." Martha explained.

"Your friend." the Master corrected, speaking directly to Martha, rather than the others.

"And he's unarmed." Martha added pointedly. Soldier-girl lowered her weapon, slowly. She glanced at the Doctor for reassurance, and received an encouraging nod.

But then voices echoed through the corridor. Human voices.

"That's the general! We haven't got much time." the Doctor declared.

"We don't even know what we're looking for!" Donna whined.

"Is it me, or can you smell flowers?" Martha asked.

"I'm amazed you can smell anything past that slime." the Master joked, but sure enough when he dared to actually use his sense of smell he found that there was a floral scent in the air here.

Martha half-glared at him, but the Doctor interrupted another potential verbal battle, cheering, "Yes! Bougainvillea! I say we follow our noses!" she turned and ran off down the corridor. Soldier-girl grinned brightly, and took off after her. The others weren't far behind, a little less enthusiastic about the running.

"I've been trying not to use my nose." the Master muttered, glancing at Martha again. She swatted him on the arm. "Hey!" he snapped, indignantly. His coat- the black one with the red lining that he liked so much- had been untouched by the slime, until now.

It didn't take them long to find a large chamber filled with a vast array of oxygen-generating plants. It was actually built into the ship itself, a giant greenhouse.

"Oh, yes! Yes! Isn't this brilliant?" the Doctor cheered, spinning on the spot with her arms flung wide, as if this was the best thing she'd seen in a long time. She then seemed to spot the rather obvious glowing sphere in the centre of the greenhouse, and rushed over to look at it more closely.

"I think someone spiked the TARDIS' regeneration-assistance system with caffeine. And maybe some of the more exotic Betelgeuseian spices, as well." the Master muttered, earning confused looks from two of the three women who hadn't immediately rushed over to the glowing sphere, and a laugh from Martha.

"You're one to talk!" the Doctor snapped too-cheerfully.

"More proof to my theory." the Master retorted, undeterred.

Donna shook her head, and decided to deal with the more imminent situation and interrogate the two Time Lords later, "Is that the Source?" she asked.

"It's beautiful." soldier-girl whispered, awed.

"What is it?" Martha asked.

The Doctor grinned at them all, and not for the first time, the Master thought she really got way too excited over silly bits of human technology, "Terraforming! It's a third generation terraforming device!"

"So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?" Donna demanded.

"Because that's what it does." the Doctor answered immediately, "All this, only bigger. Much bigger! It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally-"

But she didn't have time to finish her little lecture on terraforming technology, because at that exact moment both sides of the war showed up, fully armed and ready for blood. Weapons were aimed and primed, but the Doctor- bloody moron that she was- stepped between the two groups and shouted, "Stop! Hold your fire!" as if that might work.

Surprisingly, it did. At least for now.

The human general stepped forward, weapon still primed and ready, "What is this? Some kind of trap?" he demanded.

"You said you wanted this war over." the Doctor noted, as if she was reminding a senile old man what day of the week it was.

"I want this war won." the general corrected. Big difference, really.

"You can't win." she explained, still standing between the two groups of beings who wanted to kill each other. Not a safe place to be standing, "No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers. Getting more distorted the more it's passed on." She indicated the sphere in the middle of the room, "This is the Source. This is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It's used to make barren planets habitable. Look around you! It's not for killing, it's bringing life."

It looked like her words were having the desired effect, most of the soldiers on both sides had lowered their weapons slightly. A sign of hesitation, reluctance to fight. Their faces even showed a glimmer of hope.

And the Doctor was still talking. "If you allow it, it can lift you out of these dark tunnels and into the bright, bright sunlight! No more fighting. No more killing." She picked up the glowing sphere, holding it up in front of her, "I'm the Doctor, and I declare this war is over!" and with those words she threw the sphere to the ground, where it shattered, releasing its gaseous contents. It really was very pretty, in spite of the Master's best efforts to pretend otherwise. Beautiful, shimmering gold and green.

And then the familiar sound of weapons being laid down on the ground turned his attention away from the shimmering lights. He looked from the Hath to the humans, then to the Doctor, and raised an eyebrow. The Doctor had always been able to use theatrics to his advantage, although this was the first time he had seen her do so since the Time War.

The Master smirked, and walked over to stand next to the Doctor, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Impressive show."

"From you, that's a serious compliment." she retorted, smiling.

"What's happening?" solider-girl asked, stunned.

The Doctor smiled at her, "The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process."

"What does that mean?" she persisted.

"It means a new world." the Doctor answered.

While soldier-girl laughed in delight at that thought, the Master scanned the Hath, all of whom were entranced by the glowing lights. Easily amused creatures. Then again, the humans were likely as bad. His gaze turned to them, and he froze for an instant. The general had raised his weapon, and aimed for the Doctor. His amused gaze hardened into that cold glare that usually quelled the best soldiers, but the general was not looking at him. Single-minded focus, as he pulled the trigger.

The Masters shoved the Doctor to the side, sharply. Unfortunately, his injured foot would pick that moment to finally give out, and he stumbled. Instead of risking getting shot in the arm at worst, it hit the right side of his chest, going through the heart- well, one of them- as he fell, almost landing on top of the Doctor.

She jumped up quickly, ready to yell at him, but then she saw the wound, and froze, "No! No no no!" and she was kneeling at his side before he knew she had moved.

The Master actually laughed, although it hurt to do so, "Stupid reason to die." he muttered, thinking of the minor injury to his foot that had caused him to get in the way of a bullet that really should have missed both of them, if he had done has he'd intended.

"It was stupid, wasn't it?" the Doctor said, smiling weakly, "But you can regenerate."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" he asked. He was having a bit of trouble breathing, now.

"Don't joke about this!" she snapped, angrily.

"Why not?" he asked, smirking. He hoped it was infuriating.

"Just shut up and regenerate!" she shouted.

"Or what?"

"Please." she whispered, and he could see tears in her eyes.

He stared at her, for a few painful seconds, stunned by this display of emotion. Then the cruel smile returned, "Say my name. Beg me."

"You are one sick and twisted individual, you know that, don't you?" she asked, not looking particularly surprised by his demand.

"That doesn't sound like begging to me." he inhaled sharply, a hiss of pain. Without allowing the regeneration, he wouldn't last more than a couple of minutes.

"Please, Master." the Doctor whispered, "Please regenerate."

x x x


	21. Passing Time

x x x

**Chapter 21: Passing Time**

x x x

"Please, Master." the Doctor whispered, "Please regenerate."

The Master smiled, "Anything for you, beautiful." he said, before closing his eyes and allowing the blaze of light to engulf him.

x x x

Martha blinked, and averted her gaze from the Master. The light was blinding gold, and might have been a truly wonderful sight if she had been able to actually look at it. The Doctor had stepped back, and Donna was covering her eyes as well. Jenny and the Doctor didn't seem to have turned away, though they were keeping their distance.

She blinked, squinting her eyes so she could get a glimpse of the light, and in her mind she couldn't help picturing a phoenix burning. From what she had heard of regeneration, that was the best comparison she could conjure in her mind.

"What- what is that?" Jenny asked weakly.

"Regeneration. It's a way for Time Lords to sort of cheat death." the Doctor whispered, not taking her eyes off the Master, as the light finally began to fade.

Another new face. It had been a shock to see such a young man, after she had only just gotten it into her head that Yana was the Master. Now, he looked completely different again. His hair was a bit longer, jet-black, and almost as unruly as the Doctor's but slightly wavier. His entire face had changed, but it was difficult to place where the differences were, until Donna pointed out the rather obvious, "He looks a bit like that Stark guy, from the Iron Man movie. Except without the beard."

"I'm sure he'll fix that, given half the chance." the Doctor said, clearly amused.

The Master groaned, and muttered loudly enough for them to hear, "Who the hell is Stark?"

"Fictional character." Donna said brightly, "You don't look exactly like him, but pretty close."

"Ugh." he sat up, something in the way he moved there was comparable to Dracula in the movies. Cautiously, as if afraid of what he might find by doing so, he ran his hand over his face, as if checking to feel the difference, "Is he good-looking?"

"Very." Donna said, nodding.

"That's good." he said, looking up at them. His eyes were an odd silvery-grey colour, and the smile he showed briefly- in response to Donna's opinion of his appearance- looked almost warm, rather than cold and cruel. Twisted, ironic, but still a warm smile. He rotated his head, and a cracking noise came from his neck, then he slowly picked himself up, looking at his hands, "Could be worse." he said, almost to himself, "Could have looked like your fourth life." he added to the Doctor, with a faint smirk. Whatever he was referring to was clearly meant to be funny, but he wasn't in a laughing mood right now. If this regeneration's personality was anything like the last, give him five seconds and his attitude would change again.

"Oh, please shut up." the Doctor retorted, grinning at whatever that joke was.

"Make me." he retorted.

She raised an eyebrow at that statement, but said nothing.

"On the bright side, the regeneration healed that injury you were so worried about, Miss Jones." the Master noted.

Martha half-glared, half-smiled, "And you said a broken foot wouldn't kill you." she said, with cold amusement.

"You're right. I had that one coming, didn't I?" he said, nodding, before turning around rather sharply. He closed the distance between himself and the general- who had been disarmed and restrained by his own soldiers- and before the human knew what hit him, his head had snapped to the side and he was clutching the side of his face in pain. "I think I should rearrange _his_ face, now." the Master snarled. He had visibly flinched when he had struck the general, and Martha could see him rubbing his wrist where the restraint band was glowing slightly.

"I think you look better this way." the Doctor said, quietly. The Master gave her an amused smirk, and he suddenly seemed a lot less angry. "Leave him." she added. It wasn't an order, it sounded more like a plea.

"If you say so." he answered, obediently.

Donna made a noise that was clearly intended to sound like a whip cracking, and Martha giggled. Jenny looked confused, "I don't get it."

"Earth joke." Donna said brightly.

"And I wish I didn't know what she was implying." the Master muttered in a sulky tone.

x x x

The general had been locked up. The humans and Hath were happily restoring their city, and cooperating again. Donna had taken great glee in helping throw the general into the holding cell. Jenny had chosen to join the Doctor on the TARDIS. Martha wanted to go home.

"I think we deserve a holiday. First Sontarans, now this. Definitely need a holiday." the Doctor was saying, "You're welcome to join us, if you want, Martha."

"No thanks." Martha answered, smiling, "I really want to get back to Earth. There's plenty of nice holiday spots there, and I'm sick of looking at this guy, even if he does have a new face."

The Master frowned at her, "There's a word I feel I should say here, but I don't think I can."

Martha raised an eyebrow, "Would it be 'sorry'?"

He pulled a face and didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a yes." she said, smiling faintly, "If you ever actually say it, I'll accept it."

He stared at her in mild surprise, but it didn't last long, and he was soon wearing his usual infuriating smirk- which somehow looked so much less threatening on this new face- again, "Good. Don't hold your breath, though."

She was startled by this, and backed away nervously, "Doctor, he's scaring me. I think the regeneration messed with his mind."

"It usually does affect personality a bit." the Doctor agreed. "Hold on." and the TARDIS started to shake.

"Is it always like this?" Jenny asked, clinging to a railing as they travelled through the Vortex to- well, you couldn't really guarantee it was Earth they would land on, but that was where they were aiming for at any rate.

"Yeah." Donna said, nodding, "She never passed her driving test." Jenny giggled, and the Doctor glared half-heartedly at Donna.

When they landed, the Doctor walked to the door, and held it open for Martha, "Earth, London. A couple of days after the Sontaran thing. Hope you don't mind, I was aiming for ten seconds after we left."

"See what I mean?" Donna stage-whispered to Jenny, who giggled again.

"It could have been worse." the Master noted brightly, "Her record is one hundred trillion years off of where she was trying to land."

Martha laughed weakly, "He's got a point, Donna. A couple of missing days, I can deal with." and with that, and one last hug for the Doctor, she left the TARDIS.

"Vacation time!" the Doctor declared, after the door had closed behind Martha, and she started to press buttons on the console.

x x x

"This is _not_ Midnight." the Master noted, looking up at the clear violet sky overhead. It was a bright sunny day on some pretty little planet whose name they did not yet know.

"Yeah, the TARDIS reset the coordinates to random, right before I pushed the button." the Doctor said, shrugging, "It's a glitch, I'm working on it."

"A glitch?" Donna demanded, "All this time?"

"Well, usually when she does that, it's something important, and she picks the coordinates on purpose." the Doctor said defensively, "But last week, that trip before the New Year's party, and now this, they literally did go to random."

"And where were you trying to go, those three times?" the Master asked flatly, looking around at the pretty scenery. If there were birds chirping, it would be perfectly intolerable, and he'd have to kill said birds. Luckily for any avian life forms on this planet, there was no birdsong.

"Um... Cardiff. Every time." the Doctor said, frowning, "Cardiff, June seventh, two-thousand-nine."

"Maybe she doesn't want you to go there for a reason?" the Master suggested, "Like, you're already there, or something?"

"Which would make a whole lot more sense if I remembered ever going there." the Doctor pointed out.

"Or maybe-" the Master started, but Donna interrupted him.

"Can we not argue about how time travel works, right now?" she complained, "You'll give me a headache."

The Master glared, "Or..." he said with emphasis, "It could just be a crossed-circuit in the temporal transduction feedback matrix." he suggested, staring at Donna as if daring her to say something.

"No, that couldn't be it." the Doctor answered dismissively, but then she saw the look Donna was giving the Master, and decided to change the subject, "Anyway. You don't recognise this planet, do you?"

"Well I can tell you where we're not." the Master noted, "Anywhere interesting."

And for once, this was true.

x x x

Two months passed, during which they failed to find very much that could be classified as dangerous wherever they went. Donna was very happy with this, still excited at all the new places and times they explored, and quite honestly gleeful at the respite from constant mortal peril.

Even the Master managed to pretend to be content with the lack of carnage. This was most likely because all the trouble the Doctor had attracted since they had started travelling together was usually of the sort that would inconvenience him as well.

Jenny was enjoyed seeing new worlds, but it was obvious that she was positively impatient at the lack of excitement since they had left Messaline. The only interesting things that had happened so far had involved some sort of alien entity that called itself Mandragora, possessing a computer and trying to take over the Earth... and there hadn't been any running at all!

The Doctor was certain that the TARDIS was doing it on purpose, quite probably for Jenny's benefit. It just went to show that the danger the Doctor found him/herself in most of the time was at least partially caused by the TARDIS' attitude problem, the one the Master frequently offered to fix with a sledgehammer, but the Doctor would never want to change.

Still, the relative peace did give them all the opportunity to relax.

For the Doctor, this meant repairing some of the less reliable components of the TARDIS. For the Master, it meant either reading or trying to figure out where the Doctor had hidden the T.V. remote, which he never would manage to do, unless he asked her nicely, and he had yet to consider that as even being an option. For Donna, there were at least four shopping trips to various aesthetically pleasing planets, and the discovery of free long-distance phone calls through the Vortex, to tell her grandfather everything she'd been up to so far.

Jenny, on the other hand, spent her time trying to get attention from the other three. The Doctor taught her to help with TARDIS repair, which Jenny had snidely- albeit jokingly- pointed out would be better done by just buying a new one. Donna educated her on Earth fashion, and told exaggerated versions of her adventures on the TARDIS so far. When Jenny went to find the Master, however, the Doctor had no idea what he said or did that took up to ten hours at a time.

That is, until now, when the Doctor found the two of them in the T.V. room. They sat at opposite ends of the couch, facing each other with their backs against the armrests, cross-legged, with their eyes closed. "Now tell me how far." the Master was saying.

Jenny frowned, "Three hours."

"And?"

She laughed, and concentrated some more, "And... forty-two seconds."

"Very good. Now, keep your eyes closed, I've got another one for you." he opened his own eyes, and leaned back, "Reach out through the room. What's changed?" he looked up at the Doctor, and put one finger to his lips, smiling brightly.

"Um..." Jenny frowned, and seemed to be concentrating really hard. "This isn't you trying to look for the T.V. remote, again. I'd have heard you move."

"So what _is_ it, then?" he insisted, "I recognise stalling for time when I hear it, you know."

Jenny kept concentrating, then finally smiled, "Hi, mum." she said, turning to face the Doctor, without opening her eyes.

"Hi, Jenny." the Doctor said, finally walking further into the room, "And please, I beg you, don't call me mum."

Jenny opened her eyes, and laughter was visible there even though she didn't voice it, "What should I call you, then?"

"Doctor?" she suggested hopefully.

"Maybe." Jenny muttered, not losing the cheerfulness in her voice for an instant, and somehow the Doctor got the impression she was going to be hearing a lot more of the word 'mum' than she'd ever wanted.

"So what are you two up to?" the Doctor asked, picking up one of the books the Master had bought on Earth and sitting down on a nearby chair.

"I've been teaching her temporal perception." the Master said, shrugging, "Since you have yet to acknowledge her heritage, I figured someone should show her the basics."

"I was never a very good teacher, anyway." the Doctor said dismissively, "Blew up a school once. Got another one invaded by aliens. And that's just in this lifetime."

The Master shook his head, clearly bemused by that thought, and probably planning to ask about it later, as the Doctor began to pretend to ignore them. He turned back to Jenny, "Ok, close your eyes again." she did so without question. The Doctor started pretending to read, now. "This is a new one. Low-level telepathy." the Master continued, taking Jenny's hand, "Physical contact always helps, but eventually you should be able to do this from the other side of a planet. I want you to tell me what I'm thinking. Right now."

The Doctor tried to sense what he was thinking, herself, but his mental shields had been very carefully constructed to only let Jenny in. After several seconds, Jenny spoke, uncertainly, "I hear laughter."

"And what's funny?" the Master asked, his smile showing that this was the right answer.

"Um..." Jenny tried to concentrate a bit more, then finally laughed herself, "The book in the mum's hands is upside down!"

The Doctor looked at her book, and realised this was true. "I can read upside down when I want to." she muttered, turning the offending book the right way up anyway. If she didn't have better self-control she might be blushing at being caught out so easily, but as it was she managed to retain some semblance of dignity. What book was this, anyway? Lord of the Rings? Oh no, the Master could pick up loads of evil ideas from Sauron. She needed to hide this book.

"I've read it already." the Master said bluntly. And of course, she had let her guard down there, and he'd known what she'd thought. Brilliant.

When it became clear that the Doctor was going to pretend nothing that could possibly be considered embarrassing for her had happened, the Master turned his attention back to Jenny, "Ok, look at me." he said simply, "You remember what I looked like before the regeneration?"

Jenny nodded, "Yeah."

"Keep looking at me, I want you to sense backwards. Keep going until you see my old face." This would make very little sense to a human, but the Doctor knew exactly what was going on. It was possible for Time Lords to literally do a mental rewind on any individual person, place or even world, to see what they used to be. It's how Time Lords were able to recognise each other through regenerations.

Jenny spent almost two minutes watching the Master, before gasping, "It worked!" she said, startled.

"Try to look further back." the Master encouraged.

After another minute, "You look old, now. White hair, kinda like a cuddly grandpa."

"Alright, I didn't need _that_ description." the Master said indignantly. Jenny just smiled innocently. "Try it on the Doctor, now."

The Doctor glared briefly at the Master, but then shrugged, as if to say she didn't really mind. Although Jenny did not yet know that the Doctor used to be a man (and still intended to change back eventually). This might not be the best way to break the news to her.

Then again, it would certainly prove she was learning the whole temporal perception thing. These were the most basic lessons ever taught at the Academy, and usually took a month or so to get the hang of. Jenny had been travelling with them for three months now, and the Doctor would not be surprised to learn that the Master had been teaching her the entire time.

Jenny stared at the Doctor for about half a minute, before gasping in surprise, "That can't be right." she said, startled.

"If you see a man with ridiculously spiky hair, then you did get it right." the Master said calmly.

"But- how?" Jenny asked.

"Long story." the Doctor said, frowning, "Alien weapon, turned me into a woman. I can reverse it, but-"

"But for some strange reason, she chose not to." the Master interrupted, "I wonder why." he added, in that sarcastic way that suggests he had an idea, and believes his theory whether it's right or not.

"I will change back eventually." the Doctor noted, folding her arms defensively, "I just don't want to yet."

The Master simply smirked, "Read back further." he said to Jenny.

"Um... big ears, very short hair, kinda scary." she said after another minute. It seemed like her ability to read back was improving, if she could cover three years worth so quickly.

"Were my ears really that bad?" she asked defensively.

"Yes." the Master and Jenny said at exactly the same time.

The Doctor rolled her eyes, and once more pretended nothing embarrassing had been discussed, returning to the book, she flicked quickly through the introduction and started actually reading. Not that it lasted, when the Master spoke again.

"Right. Want to try something else?" It seemed even in this incarnation, his attention span was not especially good.

"Um, sure." she said, nodding.

He moved closer to Jenny, and touched the side of her face, to initiate a direct telepathic link. The Doctor felt the sudden urge to stop him- protective for Jenny, jealous for the Master, she wasn't sure which- but she didn't act on it, instead watching warily, no longer bothering to pretend that she wasn't paying attention.

"Stop thinking that, Doctor, it's distracting." he said coldly, but then he spoke more softly, to Jenny, "Alright, we'll start with an easy one. I'm replaying one of your memories. I want you to lock me out. Just picture a door closing between my mind and that memory." He flinched, "I said closing, not slamming." he noted indignantly.

Jenny giggled, "Sorry."

"It's ok. Anyone tries to read your mind without your permission, that's a very good response. But I'm only trying to teach you, so I would appreciate if you try not to give me too much of a headache." after a couple of seconds, as if he was recovering from a physical blow, he continued, "Now, I want you to try- with your mind- to push me away."

And suddenly he fell back, unable to maintain the physical contact to the side of her face as he landing on the arm of the couch in what was probably a very uncomfortable position for his spine. "Sorry!" Jenny said immediately, but she was grinning. She was proud of herself, and rightly so.

"That was not a push. That was a kick to the face." the Master said, pulling himself into a sitting position, looking slightly dazed.

"I'm good at those, though." Jenny noted brightly. She really was. The spinning high-kicks that could knock most people out cold. The Doctor had seen her practicing them in the exercise room.

"Why am I not surprised?" he asked, shaking his head to dispel the disorientation it had caused him to be so forcibly repelled from her mind. "I think that's enough for today."

"Aww, but I was doing so well!" Jenny whined.

"If this was a physical confrontation, you would just have won by a knockout." the Master growled, "I don't feel like trying anything else right now."

Jenny looked to the Doctor, hopefully. "Oh no." the Doctor said, shaking her head, "You beat him up good, I'm not stupid."

"Could have fooled me." the Master pointed out a bit too brightly. Jenny's eyes narrowed, and she glared at him, causing him to flinch, "Oh, she's a fast learner. A telepathic slap!"

"It's times like this I'm glad we're never going to see Jackie Tyler again." the Doctor noted happily.

The Master shook his head at this, and then smiled at Jenny, "For homework, you can try to convince your mother to let you watch Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, then make a note of all the theoretical and practical inaccuracies, paradoxes and risks involved in the storyline." at the Doctor's bemused and incredulous look, he added, "Much more fun than projects we were ever given at the Academy."

x x x


	22. Agatha Christie

x x x

**Chapter 22: Agatha Christie**

x x x

"I'm not going!" the Master snapped, sitting resolutely on the couch in the TARDIS' control room.

"Oh yes you are." the Doctor insisted, pulling him to his feet before he could begin impersonating a pantomime in retaliation to her order. He was dragged unceremoniously outside, into the fresh air and bright sunlight. Nearby was a stately looking manor house, but the TARDIS itself was well concealed by a lot of trees. For having a broken chameleon circuit she still managed to blend in when she really wanted to.

"Smell that air." the Doctor said brightly. The Master immediately proceeded to hold his breath. Being a Time Lord, with a respiratory bypass system, he could easily do so for a few hours. "Grass and lemonade-" the Doctor continued, oblivious to his rebelliousness, "-and just a little bit of mint. Must be the nineteen twenties."

"You can tell what year it is just by smelling?" Donna demanded.

"Oh yeah!" the Doctor said nodding. And lying too. No way could she tell the year by smell alone. Now, the planetary alignments, and Sol's location relative to other major celestial bodies, did indicate that she was correct about what decade it was. Didn't mean she really could smell it, though.

"Or maybe that big vintage car coming up the drive gave it away." Donna suggested smugly. Jenny giggled.

"I've seen those in the thirty-seventh century." the Master noted bluntly. Donna scowled at him, but said nothing.

Jenny peered out past them, "Looks like a party." she pointed out.

"For which none of us are suitably dressed. I'm going back inside." the Master pointed out, before returning to the TARDIS without waiting for permission. His statement was, for the most part, true. This was a nineteen-twenties garden party, all three women should be wearing dresses, and he should make himself scarce before the Doctor points out that he's dressed in a perfectly acceptable manner.

"Oh no you don't!" the Doctor laughed, following him, "We are definitely going to this party."

x x x

Unfortunately, however much he might like to delude himself, the Master was still a prisoner, and really had no choice but to join the other three at the party. It was worth it to see the Doctor pretending to look comfortable in a dress, anyway. In the end she had chosen a dark blue dress, just the perfect colour that it might have been excellent camouflage if she'd stood right in front of the TARDIS.

Jenny had been positively gleeful to find a pale purple sundress that she liked, and had spent several minutes spinning on the spot to show it off, before calming down enough to leave the TARDIS. She could probably still beat someone up in that dress, if she tried, it wasn't exactly restrictive in any noticeable way.

Donna had worn something dark brown with too many beads on it. He really didn't like it, although the Doctor had complimented her, and it did fit in with the era.

Since his regeneration, the Master's choice in clothing had turned back towards mostly or all black, as opposed to the grey that he had chosen in his last incarnation, but he still wore a suit, and in spite of the warm weather he had tried to wear the red-lined coat. Might have gotten away with it if the Doctor hadn't pointed out that most humans would pass out from heat exhaustion with that coat in this weather.

"I do like the music." he admitted, as they finally joined the party itself.

The music itself was currently playing the intro to some melody that quite probably was the latest hit in this time- he couldn't care less- but the intro in question followed his beat. This was why he had mentioned it at all. The Doctor glared at him, but the other two ignored it.

"You going to use an alias today?" she asked him, instead.

"I don't see why not." he shrugged, "Nobody in this decade knows who Harold Saxon is, do they?"

"Hope not." Donna muttered, grinning.

The Master shrugged, and as soon as the Doctor had shown the psychic paper to someone- apparently the hostess, Lady Clemency Eddison- introducing them as invited guests, he led Jenny away to the other side of the garden. Just as they escaped the immediate proximity of the Doctor, he heard Donna very efficiently embarrassing the Doctor by attempting to impersonate a posh accent.

"Why over here?" Jenny asked.

"It's not that I dislike your mother, Jenny..." he said bluntly, "Well, I do, but the point is, standing too close to her can sometimes be hazardous to your health. And she's insufferably smug when it comes to any time on Earth before the nineteen fifties, like she thinks she knows everything."

Jenny giggled, "You're mean."

"Yes." he said, giving her a blank stare, "Your point being?"

She shrugged and went about one of her favourite pastimes, people-watching. Everywhere they'd gone, she'd watch. He sometimes wondered if she was trying to learn new customs, or if it was just the machine's memories telling her to watch for enemies and traps. Either way, he much preferred to watch, with her, than have to make small-talk with these lesser beings as the Doctor always did.

"Unicorn?" Jenny asked, frowning. The Master had been ignoring the actual conversation.

"Hmm?"

"Someone called the Unicorn. Jewel thief. Lady Eddison just said." Jenny pointed out.

"Do you own jewellery?" he asked.

"No. These came out of the TARDIS wardrobe... and I think they're plastic." Jenny said, tugging at one of her green and white earrings. Either she'd had a lesson in Earth history and was making a statement, or she just had no fashion sense at all. It could be both.

"Then why do you care?"

"'Cause it's interesting." Jenny said, giving him a blank stare that blatantly showed her confusion at his complete lack of caring, "'Sides, maybe they'll catch him. Maybe he's an alien. Maybe we'll have to run after him." she added excitedly.

"Doubt it." the Master said, shrugging, "Our travels have been very quiet lately."

Jenny shrugged and went back to watching. This time, the Master actually listened, as well.

"He's kinda cute." Jenny noted, indicating Lady Eddison's son- whose name the Master believed he had heard to be Roger- as he greeted Donna. Considering how much he disliked humans, he was actually paying attention to the scene before him, enough to know that the man in the wheelchair was the Lady's husband.

"Mmhm, Jack would agree, I'm sure." the Master said, nodding.

"You keep mentioning this Jack guy, who is he?" Jenny asked, turning to give him a quizzical look.

"For his sake, hope you never meet him. The Doctor might just kill him." the Master said brightly. He had no doubt that if Jack Harkness so much as said hello to Jenny, the Doctor would pitch a fit. He'd pay to watch that, too.

"Robina Redmond." the butler announced, as another woman arrived on the scene.

When she spoke to Lady Eddison, Jenny pointed out in a hushed whisper, "As bad as Donna's accent."

"Not quite. Close, though." the Master answered, glancing around, "I hate social functions. Too many people."

"I think it's fun."

"You think running for your life is fun." he pointed out coldly.

"Reverend Arnold Golightly." the butler announced, as a weedy looking man arrived.

The Master rolled his eyes, "I'm getting sick of this already."

"Sour-puss." Jenny said, playfully hitting his arm, before wandering off to join the Doctor and Donna. The Master would rather be alone, but the Doctor was giving him suspicious looks, so he followed Jenny rather sulkily.

"As the Christian Fathers taught me, we must forgive them their trespasses. Quite literally." the Reverend was saying.

"Some of these young boys deserve a descent thrashing." the Lady's son said brightly.

"Couldn't agree more, sir." the servant who had brought the drinks said a bit too eagerly.

The Master rolled his eyes, just biting back the urge to laugh. That servant's demeanour towards the young man was even more obvious than half the things Jack Harkness ever said. Only half, though.

"Typical. All the decent men are on the other bus." Donna grumbled.

"Or Time Lords." the Doctor added pointedly.

The Master snorted. He knew what she meant, of course. Time Lords generally had no preference in that context for the simple fact that they didn't do such things anyway. Still, he leaned close to the Doctor and Donna, and spoke in a low voice so only they could hear, "I know you kissed Jack Harkness." he glanced at Donna, with a smug smirk, but received a sharp elbow to the stomach for being stupid enough to lean over the Doctor's shoulder as he pointed this out.

Donna laughed when she heard this, and the Doctor glared at him for it, but he was saved from rebuke by Roger asking Lady Eddison, "Now, my lady, what about this special guest you promised us?"

"Here she is, a lady who needs no introduction!" Lady Eddison cheered, gesturing to another blond woman who had just arrived.

This special guest accepted the applause with obvious humility, shyly holding up her hands in a plea for them to stop, "No, no, please. Don't. Thank you, Lady Eddison. Honestly, there's no need." she turned to the nearest guest, who happened to be Donna, and introduced herself, "Agatha Christie."

"What about her?" Donna asked, completely clueless.

"That's me." the woman said, clearly taken aback by Donna's foolishness.

"No!" Donna said, stunned, as Agatha laughed nervously. Poor woman, this must be her first meeting with a twenty-first century fangirl. "You're kidding."

The Doctor stepped forward, shaking Agatha's hand, and grinning brightly, "Agatha Christie! Pleasure to meet you. I'm Jane Smith, this is Donna-" she then tilted her head in Jenny's direction, "-my little sister Jenny-"

'_Sister?_' Jenny may as well have actually spoken, for the clarity with which the Master heard her almost indignant thought.

He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "She looks far too young to pass you off as her daughter around humans."

The Doctor continued to talk, still very fast, as if she hadn't noticed, "-and tall dark and lurking behind me is Harold. I love your work, read all your books. Real genius, fooled me every time. Well, almost every time. Well, once or twice. Well, once. But it was a good once!"

"You ever considered the idea of stopping talking while it's still a compliment, hmm?" the Master asked clearly, smirking at the bemused expression on Agatha's face.

Agatha laughed, her eyes darting between the two Time Lords for a second before she pointed out, "You make a rather unusual couple."

They both spoke at the exact same time, the Doctor immediately denying, "We are _not _ married!"

And the Master, smirking evilly and loving the opportunity to infuriate the Doctor, "Thank you." When she glared at him, he said, "What? 'Unusual' is a compliment."

In answer to the Doctor's denial, Agatha laughed and pointed out, "Well obviously not. No wedding ring."

"She's good." the Master noted, putting a hand on the Doctor's shoulder.

The Doctor couldn't help but agree to that, "You don't miss a trick." but it was clear to the Master's senses that she was genuinely contemplating causing damage to that hand if he didn't remove it soon.

"I'd stay that way if I were you." Agatha pointed out, "The thrill is in the chase, never in the capture."

The Master laughed, "Couldn't agree more." He got a vague impression of the Doctor's thoughts when he said that, the idea that now was not the right decade for her to comment out loud on his liking for handcuffs, and now he had to fight to keep the evil smirk off his face.

"Speaking of rings, that is an unusual design." the woman whose accent Jenny had insulted- Robina Redmond- pointed out.

The Master glanced at his hand, which he had the good sense to remove from the Doctor's shoulder now, "Family heirloom, one of a kind." he shot a bemused look at the Doctor, "Very precious to me."

"Oh, that you read." she muttered.

"I'd have read her books, if you didn't hide them on me." he retorted, indicating Agatha Christie as he said it. But as they discussed this, Lady Eddison was leading Agatha away from them, prattling on almost as efficiently as the Doctor. When she noticed they were moving, the Doctor followed Agatha.

The Master, meanwhile, skulked away from the group, only to be followed by Robina. He actually bothered to look at her, since she obviously demanded his attention. Dressed in red and black, too much jewellery, and hair set like concrete, but she didn't look too bad. For a human. Although he did get the feeling that she was paying far more attention to him than was really necessary.

"Miss Redmond, is it?" he asked her, pretending to be polite.

She nodded with a smile, offering her hand for him to shake, "Indeed, and you would be?"

"Harold Saxon." he shook her hand, consciously aware of the way her fingers brushed the ring as she let go, but only because she had already drawn his attention to it, "A pleasure to meet you." but he deliberately glanced over to where the Doctor was now talking to Donna, to insinuate that he really was with the Doctor, and to make it clear that he wasn't interested in Robina at all.

She seemed to get the message, backing off just a bit, "I hear great rumours about Mrs Christie's next book." she offered by way of small talk.

"Hmm, would you be so certain?" he asked, but then he shrugged, "I was never good at reading mysteries, myself. I tend to read the ending first."

Robina laughed, but while she was genuinely amused it somehow sounded as if she was forcing her laughter to the wrong tune, "That's hardly fair."

"If only we could do so with real life." he added, wishing he had been there when the Doctor had ordered drinks, so he could have a polite excuse not to talk, while he sipped some alcoholic concoction or other.

"That would make it too easy." she said pointedly, "And as Mrs Christie said, the thrill is in the chase."

The Master turned to watch the Doctor, now. Once again he did so to put the human off. However, as he watched, another woman- a servant, judging by her attire- ran out of the house shouting, "Professor! The library! Murder! Murder!"

Finally, something interesting. Completely ignoring Robina now, the Master joined the others just as the Doctor was asking to be shown where this murder had happened.

He quickly whispered to Jenny, "It's generally frowned upon to look so eager when you hear things like that." Not to say he hadn't behaved in a worse manner himself, but if they wanted to avoid being accused themselves it would be a good idea to remain sombre.

Jenny's bubbly 'it's time to run now' attitude faded quickly, and she glanced up at him, "Sorry." she muttered.

x x x

The four of them entered the library, accompanied by Agatha Christie, to find the dead body on the floor.

"Oh my goodness." the butler declared, horrified, as he arrived behind them.

The Doctor quickly ran over to check it. "Head wound, blunt instrument." she declared, checking the dead professor, "Watch broke as he fell, time of death was quarter past four." only seventeen minutes ago.

Meanwhile, the Master scanned the room itself. "No sign of forced entry. Windows are sealed." he glanced at Jenny, "Could be worse, door could have been locked from the inside." he added, joking.

"Bit of pipe." Donna pointed to the bloodstained weapon on the floor next to the dead body, "Call me Hercule Poirot, but I reckon that's blunt enough."

"Well there's nothing of value there." the Doctor declared, dropping a pile of papers back onto the desk.

"Hold on." Donna said, taking on a disbelieving tone, "The body in the library? I mean, Professor Peach, in the library, with the lead piping?"

"There are worse Tim Curry movies to find yourself in the middle of than Clue." the Master muttered under his breath. The Doctor heard him, and shot him a glare for it.

The babbling of confused and panicky humans could be heard from the doorway, now, as the rest of the guests arrived on the scene, all jostling for a good view so that they could properly gawp at the spectacle and express their shock.

The Master approached the Doctor, touching her arm and allowing her to hear his thoughts, '_It really does look like something from a stereotypical- and so far not very well written or compelling- mystery novel. What do you think we should do?_'

'_Would think that was obvious. Same thing we did in Pompeii when you assumed they'd listen to a man more easily._' she answered, giving him a pointed look and handing him her psychic paper, '_Accuse me of anything to do with the words 'plucky young girl' and I will hurt you._'

He allowed her to hear laughter in her mind for that- the malicious sort that implied he might just say that to annoy her- as he took the psychic paper and pocketed it.

Seconds later, Agatha Christie declared, "Someone should call the police."

"No need." the Master said, taking on an authoritative tone as he produced the psychic paper.

He hoped the Doctor had allowed it to show what _he _ wanted, as he willed it to show the name and title; Chief Inspector Harold Saxon (MSc), Scotland Yard, and whatever other accompanying irrelevant information the humans expected to see on such identification. The good thing about psychic paper was it could improvise when you didn't know all the details.

Just to add to this, for those who couldn't read it at whatever distance they stood, he quoted most of it, "Chief Inspector Harold Saxon, Scotland Yard." then added for good measure, "And these two ladies here are my assistants." He indicated the Doctor and Donna, and literally felt the wave of indignation from Jenny at being excluded.

"I say." Lady Eddison sounded utterly astounded at this. Possibly horrified at the idea that a policeman would be investigating her home.

"I want everyone to go into the sitting room, now." the Master ordered, "When we have finished investigating the crime scene, I will question you all separately."

Agatha nodded, standing up and herding the others towards the door, "Come along, do as the Inspector says. Leave the room undisturbed."

As Jenny- very sulkily- went to join the others, the Master caught her arm, "You ok, Jenny?" he asked, as a cover for the humans to hear, while he projected a completely different message to her telepathically, '_Watch them. Let us know if anything unusual happens._' She looked up at him and nodded, smiling faintly for a second, before turning to leave with the humans.

As soon as they were alone, Donna demanded, "What, I don't get to be a detective?"

"No policewomen in nineteen twenty-six." the Doctor answered distractedly, looking under the desk for anything she might have missed.

The Master, meanwhile, knelt next to the corpse, and touched the side of the dead man's face. It was always unpleasant, and generally to be avoided by sane psychics- of course the Master hadn't been sane for centuries, and even acknowledged the fact- but he read backwards in the man's brain, trying to catch a glimpse- an echo- of the moments before his death. The Doctor saw this, and gave him an utterly disgusted look for it.

"What's he doing?" Donna demanded, when she saw this.

"Time Lord equivalent of necrophilia." the Doctor muttered, reaching under the table.

"Shut up." the Master hissed, quickly backing away from the corpse and sitting down on the nearest chair. That had been painful, and completely pointless, "He didn't see his killer, anyway." he shook his head, "Or if he did it was seriously repressed, and fast."

"Remind me why we don't get the real police in here?" Donna asked, frowning at the Master but choosing not to comment.

"Well, the last thing we want is a mundane policeman sticking his nose in." the Doctor answered.

"Or worse, Torchwood." the Master added.

"Especially now I've found this." the Doctor declared, producing a stick with a bit of slime on the end of it, "Morphic residue."

"Morphic?" Donna asked, confused, "Doesn't sound very nineteen twenty-six."

"It's left behind when certain species genetically re-encode." the Doctor explained, except Donna didn't seem to follow most of it.

"Witness the inexplicable in a traumatic moment, subconsciously choose to forget it. Psychological defence mechanism... human nature." the Master said, holding his head in pain. The drums had increased in volume since he had tried to read the dead man's memories. Never doing that again.

"The murderer's an alien." Donna said, incredulously.

"Which means, one of that lot is an alien in human form." the Doctor agreed.

"Yeah, but think about it." Donna said, still a bit shocked, "There's a murder, a mystery, and Agatha Christie."

"So? Happens to me all the time." the Doctor answered dismissively, sniffing the morphic residue, to try to figure out what it came from.

"You've been travelling with us for how long now, and this surprises you?" the Master asked.

"No, but isn't that a bit weird?" Donna persisted, "Agatha Christie didn't walk around surrounded by murders. Not really. I mean that's like meeting Charles Dickens, and he's surrounded by ghosts. At Christmas."

"Well..." the Doctor said, drawing the word out, in order to strongly imply that it really had happened and the Doctor had been a part of it.

"Oh, come on!" Donna whined, "It's not like we could drive across country and find Enid Blyton having tea with Noddy. Could we? Noddy's not real. Is he? Tell me there's no Noddy!"

"There's no Noddy." the Doctor confirmed.

"There's no Tellytubbies, no Easter Bunny." the Master put in, as the Doctor turned to leave the room. He stood up as well, still talking, "There is a Santa Claus, though. I've met him. Stole his sleigh one year."

"So _you're _ the Grinch?" Donna laughed, as they both followed the Doctor. The Master shrugged, and returned his attention to attempting to will his headache away as they turned down a corridor, heading for the sitting room.

"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me it's like Murder On The Orient Express, and they all did it!" Donna called after the Doctor.

"Murder on the Orient Express?" Agatha Christie asked, appearing from another room.

"Oh, yeah. One of your best!" Donna said brightly, oblivious to the fact that the book in question hadn't been written yet.

"Not yet." the Master said, as the Doctor walked down from the stairs she had gone halfway up.

"Marvellous idea though." Agatha remarked.

"Yeah." Donna said nodding, "Tell you what, copyright Donna Noble, okay?"

"Nice try." the Master said, appreciating the sheer nerve of it, before turning rather sharply to face Agatha, "How about you and I question the suspects, and these two lovely ladies can search for clues upstairs?"

"I'd rather stay with you, Harry." the Doctor pointed out, smiling a bit too innocently, in that way that implies she'd rather be in his company than stay for practical reasons. A totally false impression, judging from what he could sense of her emotions. Manipulative little bitch turning his own game against him, but he knew better than to argue.

"If you really want to, Jane." he said, with a smile. He wished there was an abbreviation for the name she had chosen, so he could use it in retaliation, but the closest he could think of was Janie, and that just didn't fit her.

Donna looked from one to the other, obviously trying not to laugh at their behaviour, before the Doctor took out a rather large magnifying glass from a pocket that was too small for it to even fit into if you looked at it with human logic. "Here, you might need this to look for clues." and she added in a whisper, "Any more residue." before holding out the magnifying glass to Donna.

"Is that for real?" Donna asked, clearly having noticed the dimensional displacement of the object. Agatha appeared to be oblivious to it. Ignore the impossible. As he had said before, it was human nature.

"Last time I checked, yeah." the Doctor said. Donna scowled, but then turned and headed up the stairs, giving off a distinct air of sulking that even the Master was slightly jealous of.

"Time to go solve a murder, then." the Master said, cheerfully turning to face Agatha once more.

"How like a man to have fun, while there's disaster all around him." she retorted coldly.

The Master raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't allow his good mood to dissipate just for her. The drums had shut the hell up again, and he was happy regardless of the potential alien threat, "You have no idea." he said simply.

Agatha glared, and the Doctor felt the need to intervene, "Sorry about him." she said quickly, "Loves his job a bit too much, but he is good at it."

Agatha sighed, but then said with some degree of resignation, "I will work with you, Mr Saxon. But for the sake of justice. _Not _ your own amusement."

The Master nodded, "Of course you will."

x x x

"No alibis for any of them." Agatha said, frowning as she tried to concentrate, "The secret adversary remains hidden. We must look for a motive, use 'the little grey cells'."

"We need physical evidence, then." the Master said bluntly. It would make everything so much simpler if he had been able to simply read each one of them telepathically, to find the culprit.

"For such an experienced detective, you missed a big clue." Agatha pointed out.

"The smell of burned paper." the Master suggested, "There were important documents there, but the killer didn't want anyone to know what they were."

"Saw you take a bit of paper out of the fire." the Doctor added, watching Agatha with a slightly smug smile. The Master hadn't spotted that one, but he refused to admit as much. One, the Doctor was not allowed to appear cleverer than him, ever. And two, definitely not when they're playing the part of a detective and his _assistant_, assistants are not supposed to be the smarter ones!

"You were looking the other way!" the human said indignantly.

"Yeah, but I saw you reflected in the glass of the bookcase." the Doctor retorted.

"Very clever." Agatha admitted, before taking out the piece of paper in question, "This is all that was left."

The Master leaned over her shoulder to look at it. One charred and barely distinguishable word, "Hardly of use." he said pointedly.

"What does it say?" the Doctor asked, joining them to read it as well.

"Nothing helpful." the Master answered simply. It was true enough.

"It appears we're still no further forward." Agatha said, putting the piece of paper back into her purse, "Our nemesis remains at large." both Time Lords looked at each other, as she said that. The Master smirked, finding it quite funny, while the Doctor scowled back at him. Oblivious, Agatha continued, "Unless Miss Noble's found something."

"Well let's go find her, then." the Doctor suggested.

The Master followed her out of the room, just in time to hear Donna shriek at the top of her lungs, "_DOCTOR!_"

And now with the running again. They charged up the stairs, closely followed by Agatha, and found a terrified Donna standing outside one of the rooms, holding the magnifying glass in her hand as if she thought it was a weapon.

"It's a giant wasp." Donna all but whimpered, pointing to the door as she backed away from it a bit.

"What d'you mean, a giant wasp?" the Doctor asked, confused.

The Master stepped forward, putting a hand on Donna's shoulder to try to calm her, as she retaliated with the most obvious answer possible, raising her voice in anger now, "I mean, a wasp... that's giant!"

"It's only a silly little insect." Agatha said dismissively.

"When I say giant, I don't mean big, I mean flippin' enormous!" Donna shouted, "Look at its sting!" The Master glanced down in the direction Donna indicated, and raised an eyebrow in only mild surprise.

"Let me see." the Doctor pushed the door open, only to find the room was empty. The window shattered, glass on the floor suggesting it was broken from outside... on the third floor. She checked the room carefully, before concluding, "It's gone. Buzzed off." she went over to the window to look out, while Agatha turned to look at the sting.

The Master stopped her, stepping in her way, "Don't touch it." he warned.

Agatha gave him a critical look for a second, before asking an unexpected question, "Miss Noble shouted 'doctor', but your identification said that you only had a master's degree."

The Doctor looked over at him, grinning brightly at this, and obviously trying very hard not to laugh at his discomfort. The Master shook his head, "Working on it." he muttered irritably, "Y'know, once upon a time those two titles were considered equal." he added, glowering at the Doctor's continued grinning.

After a few seconds of silent gloating, the Doctor returned her attention to the current situation, and went over to look at the broken sting imbedded in the door. She produced a test-tube and a wooden stick from her pocket, and very carefully collected a proper sample of the morphic residue. Agatha knelt down to watch closely, while the Master stood over them both, still a bit wounded from the insult to his title.

"Giant wasp." the Doctor prattled, "Well, loads of amorphous insectivorous lifeforms, but none in this galactic vector."

Agatha frowned, "I think I understood some of those words. Enough to know that you're completely potty."

"Lost its sting though, that makes it defenceless." Donna said, making it almost sound like a question.

"It's big enough to be a threat without a sting." the Master noted, "And I'd not be surprised if it was able to grow a new one."

"Can we return to sanity?" Agatha asked sharply.

"Good luck." the Master muttered.

"There are no such things as giant wasps!" Agatha continued determinedly.

"If we say that often enough will it be true?" the Master asked feigning hopeful tone, "Maybe we should start clapping our hands to stop it from dropping from the sky and crushing someone in the garden?"

"Not funny." the Doctor sniped. Agatha was glaring at him, too.

"No sense of humour." the Master muttered, folding his arms and sulking a bit, "Doesn't change the fact that you've got physical evidence right in front of you that it _does _ exist, Mrs Christie."

Agatha scowled, and looked back to the sting once more, "This could easily be a forgery of some kind."

"Mmhm, if it is a scare tactic to put us off the hunt, we still need to find who did it. Maybe the goo can tell us something." he retorted, glancing to the Doctor. She nodded, still holding the test tube that now held the 'goo' in question.

But then, a loud scream from outside succeeded in distracted them from the 'are giant wasps real?' argument quite effectively.

x x x

Jenny had been diligently watching the suspects, in the living room. No one had spoken, it was so tense you could cut the atmosphere with a knife... or that was the turn of phrase the Master had taught her for it. How do you turn a phrase, though?

The suspects were disappearing one at a time, going off to their rooms. Going off to lack an alibi, not what the smart people should do. Stick with at least one person, so you know you can prove you- and they- didn't do it if it happens again.

Robina had gone, first. She'd wanted to use the toilet. Was that the right word for this decade? Jenny didn't know, but Robina sounded a bit tense about saying it like that. She was jumpy, too, but that could either be guilt or innocently put down to the fact that there was a murder and she's just scared.

The Reverend had left second, saying he would pray for the Professor's soul, and then retire to his room.

Next, the man in the wheelchair had left with his son. Both simply wanted to escape the air of tension and accusation here, and they were smart enough to leave together, to allay suspicion.

Then Lady Eddison, who seemed thoroughly distraught by the whole thing. Jenny was sure it was sincere, too. Poor woman didn't want to cry in public, probably. Seemed the way to behave, here. Not showing weakness.

Once she was alone, herself, Jenny wandered out into the hallway, looking for her mother. She didn't like the idea of being alone in a house that concealed a murderer. It made her think of those horror movies she'd heard the Master complain about not being allowed to watch, where people split up and then get taken out one at a time. Although, according to him, the cute girl usually survives until near the end if not for the whole movie. She kind of hoped that rule worked in real life, and not just the movies.

When there was no immediate sign of anyone, she wandered out into the garden. The TARDIS was just over there, hidden by the trees, she didn't need to see it to know. Sort of comforting, like it was watching over her, or something.

Then she heard the scream.

She turned and ran towards the sound, not giving it a second thought. Someone in danger, go rescue them. Simple as that.

She rounded the corner to find the maid- or whatever her job was, she worked here- on the ground with a large bit of stone on top of her. Jenny quickly pulled the stone off her, and checked her vital signs. Human, remember that- only one heart, but the pulse was weak for even that. Broken ribs, crushed lung, this was not good. Jenny checked over her machine-given memories, field medicine was pretty weak in the coding- on Messaline if you got injured that was usually it- and she couldn't find any information to help this woman.

"I'm sorry." she said to the woman, looking around for someone to help her. Maybe if they could carry her into the TARDIS' medbay, she might still live?

"The... poor... little... child..." the dying woman managed to gasp, with her last breath.

Half a second later, the Doctor rounded the corner, followed closely by the Master, Donna, and Agatha Christie. Jenny looked up at them sadly, "I tried to help her." she pointed to the bit of stone statue that she had found on top of the woman, "That must have fallen on her."

The two other Time Lords both looked up at the roof when she said that, and Jenny heard a strange buzzing sound, before she looked up too. Her jaw dropping in shock, "What's that thing?" she asked, as the giant wasp- that's what it sure looked like- buzzed away back towards the house.

"Come on!" the Doctor shouted, pulling Jenny to her feet and starting to run back to the main doors.

The Master ran on ahead of them, and he was near the top of the stairs as the four women started to climb. "Hey, this makes a change, there's a monster, and _we're _ chasing _it!_" Donna shouted from behind her.

"Can't be a monster!" Agatha shouted, from next to Donna, "It's a trick, they do it with mirrors!"

When she got to the top of the stairs to stand next to the Master- well, as close as she could seeing as the Doctor was in her way. Good thing she wasn't too tall for Jenny to see past, 'cause the giant wasp was hovering right in front of them, and she couldn't help but stare in fascination.

"By all that's holy!" Agatha whimpered in horror.

"That's- wow, that's new." Jenny said, resisting the instinct to grin as she said it.

On hearing her voice, the Doctor move to stand more directly between Jenny and the wasp, as the big insect moved closer in a pretty threatening way. "Now just stop." the Doctor tried to order it, "Stop there." but it kept moving closer.

"Yes, because that line always works." the Master sniped. Half a second later, the wasp lunged at them, and they all fell back in their haste to avoid that sting. Only the Master managed to remain on his feet, barely, by catching the banister at the top of the stairs.

"Oi, fly boy!" Donna shouted, holding up a large magnifying glass. The wasp was smarter than the normal-sized versions of its ilk, and fled down the stairs that they had just run up.

The Master pursued it without a second thought, and the Doctor pulled herself to her feet, shouting as she followed him, "Don't let it get away! Quick! Before it reverts back to human form."

Jenny was right behind them, but when they turned down the next corridor it was empty, except for the Master who stood there eyeing the closed doors with scepticism. As the two humans caught up, he shouted out, "Show yourself!"

Every single door opened, to reveal one of the guests or family members. So not fair!

And the Doctor clearly agreed with her, all but whining, "That's just cheating."

x x x


	23. The Firestone

x x x

**Chapter 23: The Firestone**

x x x

"So what do you think?" the Master asked, sitting back in a chair in one of the smaller parlours not too far from the drawing room they would be using for the typical murder-mystery finger-pointing ritual. He actually intended to avoid it if at all possible, but so far they had been following the plot style of such stories closely enough that he feared it was inevitable. Jenny had told them the servant-woman's last words, but it hadn't done them any good, they still had no clue who did it.

"Vespiform." the Doctor answered bluntly.

"Oh, joy." the Master said sarcastically, "I really do not feel like trying to reason with empathically pre-programmed insects. Had enough of insects in general, after that little blue girl shot me."

"You didn't need to kill her." the Doctor added.

"But it felt so good. Revenge always does." the Master retorted, "How do you propose we deal with this particular insect problem, anyway?"

"Haven't thought that far ahead, yet."

"Bug spray, maybe." the Master muttered irritably, earning himself a glare from the Doctor.

At this point, Donna and Agatha returned from the garden, and Donna had something with her, "We found this in the flowerbeds, Mr Saxon." Agatha informed him, as Donna set the very neat leather-bound box down on a table.

He carefully opened it, and examined the contents, "Oh, someone came here on business." he said brightly, picking up one of the lock-picks and turning it around in his hands, "This is very good craftsmanship." for this time, at least, "Best any thief could ask for."

"The Unicorn?" Agatha asked, slightly stunned, "He's here!"

"Very narrow view." the Master muttered, glancing at the Doctor and smirking slightly, to imply to her that gender really was irrelevant in this situation. A certain female had shown far too much interest in his ring, when they had first arrived, he already had a good suspect for _that_, at least.

"The Unicorn and the wasp." the Doctor muttered, raising an eyebrow at the Master's expression. Clearly she guessed what he had meant.

Then the door opened, and the butler entered the room with a tray of drinks, "Your drinks, ladies. Inspector."

The three women took their drinks first, and the Master nodded to the butler- all the acknowledgement he would give as a pass for thanks- as he took his own. Once the butler left, Donna settled in a chair, asking, "How about the science stuff, what did you find?"

"Vespiform." the Doctor answered her, also sipping her drink, "Hardly native, not even neighbours. Whole other galaxy."

"Again, you talk like Edward Lear." Agatha pointed out, frowning at the mere suggestion of other species and/or other galaxies, however benign and technobabble-free the Doctor's explanation may have been.

The Master sat down as well, sipping his own drink, as a gesture that all but insisted the Doctor continue this explanation, not him.

"But for some reason, this one's behaving like a character in one of your books." the Doctor obliged him by prattling inanely instead.

"Come on, Agatha, what would Miss Marple do?" Donna asked, "She'd have overheard something vital by now, because the murderer thinks she's just a harmless old lady." As she was prattling about books that had yet to be written, the Master became distracted, the drums getting louder in his mind. He tried shaking his head sharply in an attempt to dispel the sound, but that made him feel slightly dizzy.

"Too early, Donna." the Doctor pointed out innocently.

"Clever idea." Agatha said, with some wonder in her tone, "Miss Marple? Who writes those?"

His heart-rates were increasing, as well, now. Something was very wrong.

"Um, copyright Donna Noble, add it to the list." Donna said brightly, unaware of the Master's discomfort. It felt like he had been focusing his respiratory bypass system for an hour or so, even though he was still breathing.

"Donna, stop doing that, it's rude." the Doctor said, grinning.

"You're one to talk, space-girl." Donna sniped playfully.

Very suddenly, a searing pain shot up his right arm, causing him to drop the glass he had been holding, and he felt the heart on that side miss a beat. Biting back the urge to scream, he caught the armrests of his chair and let out a low hiss instead. The Doctor was at his side in an instant. He looked up at her, and hissed through gritted teeth, "Poison." It wasn't the first time he had felt these effects- he was never very popular on Earth, people seemed to like trying to kill him- and he already knew what it was. Before she could answer, he had pulled himself to his feet and run for the door.

He just heard Agatha's voice behind him as he left the room, "Bitter almonds! It's cyanide! Sparkling cyanide!"

x x x

The Doctor chased after the Master, through the corridors, right down to the kitchen. She found him terrorizing the poor butler with a demand for ginger beer. Made perfect sense to her, best option available in this time for... well, half of what would be needed to cure him. A third, if you're not only counting material ingredients.

The best way for a Time Lord to deal with pretty much any form of poison was to purge their system with a detoxifying biochemcial process. Very simple and almost universally available ingredients, sugar, protein, salt and carbonated liquid. Ginger beer was both carbonated and full of sugar.

"I'm an expert in poisons, Mr Saxon." Agatha pointed out, "There's no cure! It's fatal!"

"For humans." the Doctor retorted, watching as the butler obeyed the Master with the blank expression of one under a direct telepathic compulsion. The Doctor quickly turned to Donna and asked clearly but in too sweet a tone that managed to make the urgency of her request much clearer than shouting would, "Remember we went to Planet Hollywood last week?" It had literally been the planet named Hollywood, not one of those twentieth century Earth restaurants. A whole world dedicated to multimedia entertainment, terraformed in the twenty-fifth century. Best place in all of time and space to go if you wanna catch a human-made movie. "You still got any of those peanuts you and Jenny hoarded?"

"Um... I think Jenny has some. That strappy purse thing she brought today is like the inside of the TARDIS, and-"

"Go fetch!" the Doctor ordered, "NOW!"

Donna's eyes widened, and the Doctor could tell she would get a hell of a yelling at for ordering her like a dog, but she didn't question it, instead turning and running out to find Jenny. Didn't take that long, Jenny must have heard the Master's psychic scream of pain, because she literally collided with Donna in the doorway.

"Peanuts!" Donna shouted.

Jenny looked at her like she'd gone mad, "What?"

"Jenny, give us your stash of salty snacks, right now, or you're grounded." the Doctor ordered, her tone reverting to too-sweet again, instead of the commanding voice she had used to make Donna stop talking long enough to help.

Jenny obeyed, pulling out a handful of bags of peanuts from her tiny shoulder-purse. The Master snatched two of them from her, without even seeming to notice as that caused the others to fall to the floor. Without bothering to thank them for trying to help, he was already devouring the snack-food.

The Doctor smiled as she watched his very manic behaviour. He had already emptied a bottle of ginger beer, without spilling a single drop by the looks of it. For someone- even a Time Lord- who was being affected by a literally heart-stopping poison, that took a lot of coordination.

"What else does he need?" Donna asked, glancing at the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned, trying to think how best to deal with the last, and most important, part of the detox process. It required a shock. The Master turned to look at her, expectantly. He was shaking, she could feel the waves of pain and fear from him like a physical thing, and wondered at the amount of effort he was putting into maintaining an illusion of composure in spite of it.

She glanced briefly at his right wrist, then back to meet his eyes. He shook his head, no. He didn't want to use the restraint band to trigger a physical shock. She considered slapping him, but she doubted that would shock him in the slightest.

Unable to think of another option, she said aloud, "He needs a shock." Donna grinned, and whispered in the Doctor's ear. The Doctor gave her a stunned look, "That... might work."

She sensed it more than saw it, when the Master flinch in pain, and that put an end to her hesitation at Donna's ridiculous suggestion. She walked over to the Master and grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him down so she could kiss him. Now _that _ definitely shocked him. Less than half a second passed before she sensed the change in his bio-chemistry that indicated the detox was working, and she stepped back, letting him go.

Almost as soon she released him, the Master choked slightly, before exhaling a cloud of grey-black smoke. She backed up another step, wrinkling her nose at the acrid smell of the dispelled poisons, watching as he stumbled, leaning against a nearby table, and gasping for air as if he had been drowning.

Finally after almost a minute, he was able to speak again, though still a bit out of breath, "Oh, that tasted disgusting!" he said, before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. She was sure he was trying not to laugh right now.

"Thanks." the Doctor said sarcastically, though she was smiling as she said it.

"Not you, the detox." he said, grinning at her, "I'd not say no to another kiss."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen." she said sarcastically, and a bit defensive, now. She got the feeling that he was being serious, this time, rather than his usual game of flirting with her just to try to make her uncomfortable.

"Mr Saxon, you are impossible!" Agatha declared. Aside from Donna- who was grinning at the scene she had just witnessed- she was the only human in the room not still shocked into silence, "Who are you?"

"The question you're looking for is 'what', not 'who'." the Master answered, smiling at her confusion.

x x x

It was a dark and stormy night. That was Donna's impression as they sat down to dinner. With a little bit of creativity involving a couple of spare chairs and less elbow room than was meant to be proper, everyone was seated at the table. The Master, Donna, the Doctor and Jenny took up one side of the table, and the rest of the guests and family were either facing them, or at the ends of the table. Donna thought it would have been really nice if not for the fact one of these people was a murderer. Well, two, really, if you counted the Master... she would really have preferred to sit next to Jenny rather than him, but she hadn't had any say in the seating order.

"You have to love the nerve." the Master announced. "Killer on the loose. Any one of us could be next, and here we are having dinner as if nothing at all is wrong."

"We are British, Mr Saxon. What else must we do?" Lady Eddison asked, as if surprised that anyone might consider an alternative.

"See, that's what I admire." the Master said brightly, "Pride."

"I'll tell you some things about pride." Donna sniped at him, under her breath. It was quite clear to her that he was the absolute perfect definition of pride as one of the seven deadly sins, and he seemed to accept her snide remark without even looking offended.

"Is the current situation suitable dinner conversation, do you think?" the Master asked innocently, "I wouldn't want to offend our gracious host."

"I cannot see much else that we could discuss, I'm afraid." Lady Eddison said with a sigh, "It does seem to be on all our minds."

"I don't understand how anyone could kill another person in cold blood." Jenny said softly, looking up, "I mean if it was a war, that's self-defence, but murder, don't know how anyone could..." she trailed off, at the stares she was getting, "I don't understand the mindset."

"Murder is easy, Jenny." the Master said bluntly, "Anyone can do it if they have the right motive, everyone has their price, and it's so easy to acquire the right tools for the job. So far today we've seen an interesting selection of blunt weapons... and a very good attempt at poisoning me." he looked around at the guests, now, meeting each of their eyes as he did so. Donna watched him carefully, as well. Evil geniuses are best when you keep an eye on them, really, "Is everyone enjoying their soup?"

Suddenly he was receiving suspicious looks from everyone, and the spoons that had been raised to drink the soup from now hovered frozen in midair. The Master shrugged, and continued drinking his own soup, utterly unconcerned with the stares of the others. And it had been served from the same bowl as the rest of them.

Donna looked to the Doctor, who smiled and winked at her. Donna lifted her own spoon to her mouth, and the Doctor continued to smile, nodding to tell her it was safe to drink. Scare tactic, that was it. Evil evil man. Worst thing was, it worked, even on Donna. So now she continued eating her quite spicy soup. Jenny hadn't even paused or hesitated in the slightest, when the Master had insinuated that he might have poisoned the soup. She wasn't looking at anyone else, now, but somehow she still seemed alert.

A few tense seconds later, with a clap of thunder, the window flew open, blowing out all the candles. Donna quickly dropped her spoon, staring around wildly as her eyes adjusted to the dark.

It was chaos, and all she could hear was the buzzing... and then she saw that giant wasp looming over the table. Someone grabbed her to drag her out of the way of the monster, and the two of them then ran for the door, out into the hallway. A few seconds later, the Doctor joined them, leading Agatha to safety. Jenny had fled the scene as well, but without finding anyone to rescue in the process. She looked around to see who had rescued her, expecting to see the Master, but instead it was that butler, Greeves.

"Well, we know the butler didn t do it!" Donna announced, quite sure that this really was a major revelation. 'The butler did it' really was such a popular theory in murder mysteries.

"Then who did?" the Doctor retorted, stepping warily back into the dining room, tactfully standing between Agatha and any potential danger, holding an arm out to prevent her from going in first. Another flash of lightening showed that there was no longer a wasp in the room. Unfortunately, all the family and guests- except for the Doctor, Donna, Jenny and Agatha- were still present, and therefore still suspects.

Everyone was frozen in place, whether by fear of the wasp, or the sudden ominous silence after the lightning. Lady Eddison was standing, but still at her place at the head of the table. The Colonel was on the floor, having fallen out of his wheelchair. The Reverend was cowering against a wall to the side of the room. Roger's boyfriend- Davenport- was on the floor, shaking slightly. The Master was the only one still sitting comfortably at the table, and he was holding Robina by the wrist as she stood next to him, and she did _not _ look happy.

"My jewellery!" Lady Eddison shouted, clutching at her chest where that big heart-shaped pendant she had been wearing had been, "The Firestone! It's gone! Stolen!"

But that little detail was quickly forgotten, as the boyfriend cried out in horror, "Roger!"

Also still at the table, but not easy to be comfortable with a knife in your back, was Roger, face-down in his bowl of soup. Robina shrieked, trying to pull her hand free from the Master, but he didn't let her go. Lady Eddison made a choked sobbing sound, as she approached her murdered son, and whimpered, "My son... my child!"

The Master stood, now, glancing at Robina as he did so, "It can't be much consolation, Lady Eddison." he said quietly, "But-" and he jerked Robina's arm quite sharply, "I think I know who took your jewellery."

Robina sulked, but then pulled the firestone out of the cleavage of her dress and dropped it into the Master's waiting hand.

"And the other one." the Master ordered. She took out the ring that the Master himself had worn from the same hiding place, and handed it over to him as well. He let go of her wrist so he could put his ring back on, staring at her coldly, "I also sincerely doubt she could have committed both crimes, as I caught her shortly _before _ the wasp appeared."

Robina nodded, her face white as a sheet, and she was adamantly not looking at the dead body, now. "Yes, I'm the bleedin' Unicorn." she snapped, her accent becoming something close to cockney, and she dropped her false poise and bearing, now scowling at the faces around her, "Ever so nice to meet you, I don't think."

The Master looked at the Firestone carefully, "You like dangerous trinkets, don't you, my dear?" he asked, smiling coldly at Robina, before handing the Firestone to Lady Eddison. The Lady dumbly took her pendant, clutching it to her chest protectively. Her face showed her grief, but while her eyes were watering, the tears weren't actually running down her face. Probably that pride again, Donna figured.

"I'm sick of this game, shall we do the final mandatory finger-pointing part of this little mystery novel now, and get it over with?" the Master asked, glancing around the room. Everyone simply stared at him, so he nodded, "Preferably in a different room." he glanced with a frown at Roger's corpse, before walking quickly out of the dining room.

x x x

"That poor footman." Donna muttered, as she approached the Master, "Roger's dead and he can't even mourn him. Nineteen twenty-six, it's more like the dark ages." The Master frowned, as he heard this, but said nothing.

The Doctor joined them, now, having been talking to Agatha, quietly in a corner. She must have heard Donna, Time Lords have a much better sense of hearing than humans, and the Master had caught most of the inane but still inspirational drivel the Doctor had been spouting at Agatha.

"I think Agatha should have the honour of doing this part." the Doctor pointed out, as the last of the suspects arrived. They were now all gathered in the drawing room for the final inquisition.

"You think a lot of pointlessly sentimental things, love." the Master sniped, smiling at the Doctor's reaction to his last word there.

As always, he did it to see the look on her face, far more than from real affection. The fact he honestly _would _ go out of his way to save her life, and he couldn't imagine continuing to live, himself, in a universe without the Doctor, did not mean that he had any romantic interest in her. The more accurate term for his feelings towards her would be 'dangerous obsession'. Her horrified reaction to the insinuation was always worth it, though.

"Go on, then." he gestured to Agatha, with a smile, "Anything to make the old ball and chain happy." the fact she really was his jailor did make it funny on another level, there, too. Donna wandered over to sit next to Jenny, smiling at the obviously joking sexual tension the Master was trying to generate with the Doctor.

Agatha laughed nervously, before stepping forward to join them in front of the fireplace, and turning to address the suspects, "This is a crooked house. A house of secrets. To understand the solution, we must examine them all. Starting with you..." her eyes travelled over everyone present, finally landing on Lady Eddison, "Lady Eddison."

"You can't think I would-!" the Lady protested, horrified, but the Master held up a hand and interrupted her.

"No, but I do think you know something about it." the Master tilted his head to one side, watching her carefully, "The Firestone."

"How is that relevant?" Lady Eddison asked, confused.

"You brought it back from India, did you not?" Agatha asked, "Before you met the Colonel. You came home with malaria, and confined yourself to this house for six month, in a room that has been kept locked ever since, which I rather think means..."

"Stop, please." Lady Eddison said, shaking her head in denial.

"I'm so sorry." Agatha said- wasn't that the Doctor's favourite line? "But you had fallen pregnant in India. Unmarried and ashamed, you hurried back to England with your confidante, a young maid later to become housekeeper Miss Chandrakala."

"Clemency, is this true?" the Colonel asked, stunned.

"My poor baby." Lady Eddison said, sadly, "I had to give him away. The shame of it."

"But you never said a word." the Colonel insisted.

"I had no choice." Lady Eddison explained, "Imagine the scandal. The family name! I'm British, I carry on."

"And it was no ordinary pregnancy." the Doctor put in.

Lady Eddison looked up at her, stunned now, "How can you know that?"

"This is our part of the show, now, Agatha." the Master said, "Between Miss Chandrakala's last words-" he glanced at Jenny, who had told him this information, "-'the poor little child', and when the buzzing started in the dining room, you said 'it can't be'. Seems fairly obvious to me. The Vespiform- giant wasp to the rest of you- was your child."

Lady Eddison bowed her head, nodding slightly, and explained, "It was forty years ago, in the heat of Delhi, late one night. I was alone. And that's when I saw it, a dazzling light in the sky. The next day, he came to the house. Christopher, the most handsome man I'd ever seen. Our love blazed like a wildfire. I held nothing back. And in return... he showed me the incredible truth about himself. He'd made himself human, to learn about us. This was his true shape. I loved him so much, it didn't matter. But he was stolen from me. Eighteen eighty-five, the year of the great monsoon. The river Jumna rose up and broke its banks. He was taken at the flood. But Christopher left me a parting gift." her hand moved instinctively to the Firestone, as she said that, "A jewel like no other. I wore it always, part of me never forgot. I kept it close. Always."

"Just like a man, flashes his family jewels, and you end up with a bun in the oven!" the Unicorn put in brightly.

"May I see the Firestone again?" the Master asked, holding out his hand to Lady Eddison. Reluctantly, she gave it to him, "This is no ordinary piece of jewellery." he explained, glancing at the Unicorn with a smile, "I told you, you like the dangerous trinkets."

She scowled at him, "How's that, then?"

"My ring could destroy you, and don't ask me to explain _that_... but this-" he held up the Firestone, "-this is a telepathic recorder. Vespiform technology, it connects to the child and teaches it a behaviour pattern to allow it to fit into its society." He turned to Lady Eddison, with one of those intense stares that will make most people admit the truth and/or obey without question, "I'm betting you never stop reading Agatha Christie's books, am I right?"

"I admit, that is true." she conceded.

"It's a shame you didn't understand what you were doing to your child." he closed his eyes, touching the stone of the pendant, and quite suddenly he heard someone stand up, approaching the Master, entranced. It wasn't hypnotism, though, the Master was channelling the natural programming of the Firestone, not his own powers. He opened his eyes to see who he had summoned. It was the Reverend. "I thought it was you."

"Oh my god!" Lady Eddison whispered.

The Doctor frowned, watching the Master carefully as she continued the explanation, "The mechanics of Lady Eddison's favourite novels formed a template in his brain. He killed, in that pattern, because that's what he thought the world was. Turns out, we are in the middle of a murder mystery. One of yours, Mrs Christie."

The Reverend spoke, now, frozen in place by the Master's command. "How dare you bind me!" he snarled, "I should kill all of you!"

"I really don't think you should." the Master said simply, before holding out the Firestone to the Doctor, "Go on then, fix him. I know I don't have the moral compass to do it properly, and I sincerely doubt anyone wants to see what my subconscious influence would do to a Vespiform mind."

"Only you would think to use such a benign device to dominate and bind a sentient being, Master." the Doctor hissed at him, but she took the Firestone anyway. Everyone watched in surprise and confusion as the Vespiform began to buzz and transform in a glow of purple energy, resisting the Doctor's attempt to tame it. Almost a full minute passed, before it broke her control and flew out the window.

"Well done." the Master said sardonically.

"It's not my fault he's stronger when he changes." she said, frowning, "You wouldn't have held him either."

"What have you done to my child?" Lady Eddison demanded, rushing to the window to see the Vespiform circling over the garden. Her husband quickly pulled her back away from the window as the buzzing grew closer and the Vespiform passed right by the window.

"Tried to help him." the Doctor answered, "He didn't seem very receptive to the idea, I'll admit, but still."

"We should probably go out there, after him?" Jenny asked. The strange little girl probably wanted to go running after the monster just because of the running part.

"Yes. Yes, we should." the Doctor said, nodding.

"I'm coming with you." Agatha demanded, "If my imagination made him kill, then perhaps my imagination can help you find a way to stop him."

The Doctor nodded immediately, and they ran out of the room together.

As they ran out onto the driveway, the Master asked, "Can you think of any way to stop him, now, without the violence I know you hate so much?"

The Doctor frowned, shaking her head. The Vespiform circled overhead, looking like it was planning how to strike at them without getting too close. She couldn't think of any alternative. In fact, she hadn't even thought of the idea to use the Firestone in the first place, that had been the Master's evil plan... and it had been evil, really, though admittedly one of his more altruistic evil schemes.

Agatha saw their indecision, and took the matter out of their hands. Literally, as she snatched the telepathic recorder from the Doctor and shouted out to the creature overhead, "You need this, don't you? Well come and get me, Reverend!" and she turned and ran towards the pair of parked cars in the driveway.

The Vespiform dived, trying to sting her, but it missed, and she managed to start up the vehicle and drive away.

Jenny looked at the Doctor, smiling a bit too brightly, as she asked, "Car chase?"

The Doctor nodded, "Car chase." and both of them ran for the remaining car.

"Damn two-seater vehicles." the Master muttered, as he and Donna were left behind.

"What d'you reckon she's up to?" Donna asked, watching as the Doctor and Jenny drove out of sight.

"She's smart, one of those people who notices things most humans don't. I'm sure she caught the important part when Lady Eddison said the Vespiform's father died in a flood."

"Her car was found by a lake when she disappeared." Donna said, understanding dawning on her face.

"Why would I not be surprised if her disappearance involved the TARDIS, in some way?" the Master asked, smiling darkly, "Another stray. I wonder how long she'll keep this one."

Donna elbowed him in the ribs, "Behave, space-man."

x x x

"Self-defence." Jenny repeated for the eighty-ninth time, as they drove up to the house. She was clutching her arm, where she'd hit it on a stone, while dodging the Vespiform's first attack after they had caught up with Agatha. She had then taken the Firestone and thrown it into the lake to stop the Vespiform from going after the Doctor next.

"Doesn't make it right." the Doctor repeated, as she got out of the car, right in front of where Donna and the Master stood waiting.

"Would you rather I let it kill us?" Jenny asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I'd resurrect you and kill you again if you'd been such an idiot." the Master put in, helping the Doctor lift an unconscious Agatha Christie from the back of the car, "What happened to her?"

"She was connected to the Firestone while the Vespiform was dying." the Doctor answered, "He let her go at the end."

"Very considerate of him." the Master muttered, glancing back at the house, "I don't think anyone would notice if we disappeared right about now."

Jenny nodded, "I could do with a visit to the medbay."

"So could she." the Doctor pointed out.

"We're not keeping her, are we?" the Master asked, voicing his earlier concern.

"No, we'll drop her off at the Harrogate hotel as soon as she's recovered." the Doctor said, as they walked towards the TARDIS.

The Master nodded, glancing at Jenny to ask, "So did you enjoy your first exciting trip since we left your world?"

She grinned, "Yeah, it was fun. Solving a mystery, and then a car chase. Definitely fun."

"Let's not forget the mortal peril." the Master pointed out brightly, "You're not officially affiliated with the Doctor until you've found yourself in a life-threatening situation on a strange new world."

Jenny laughed, but the Doctor scowled, "Please shut up."

x x x

After they dropped off Agatha Christie, the Doctor was happily explaining to Donna how and why no one would ever tell about this incident, as they returned to the TARDIS, where Jenny was technically supposed to be guarding the Master. The first thing she saw was Jenny sitting on the couch, reading Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"The Master did tell you that's fiction, right?" the Doctor asked, Jenny looked up and nodded, before continuing to read.

"It's fiction?" the Master asked, feigning confusion quite blatantly. Unusually, for him, he had not claimed the couch. Whether Jenny got there first and refused to move, or he'd been gracious enough to allow her to sit there, was unclear. Either way, he was now leaning against the far wall, giving off a distinct air of plotting something.

"As I was saying." the Doctor said, returning her attention to Donna, "Thing is, I don't think she ever quite forgot. Great mind like that, some of the details kept bleeding through. All the stuff her imagination could use. Like, Miss Marple!"

Donna sighed dramatically, shaking her head, "I should have made her sign a contract."

"Where did I put it. Hold on a second." the Doctor said, before turning to pull up a grating on the floor of the TARDIS. From this hole in the floor, she pulled out what looked like a pirate's chest. Like many things she owned, it was dimensionally transcendental. And this particular container was displaced in more ways than the usual. She turned the latch to the right setting, muttering the identification she had given that setting as she did so, "C..." she opened it to reveal a pile of collected junk that had been sorted into the category she had named.

"How do you alphabetise this rubbish?" the Master asked, looking over to see what was inside the chest.

"Just because you don't understand my system..." the Doctor muttered.

"No, seriously-" the Master said, leaning closer, "I see wiring, temporal transduction elements, is that a divination sphere?"

"You're right." the Doctor said, nodding as she pulled out a metallic plate and threw it into the lid of the chest. "Cybermen." She pulled out the divination sphere he'd asked about, "Carrionites." He raised an eyebrow at that- all Time Lords had heard of the Carrionites, it was a part of history from before even they had risen to power- but he said nothing about it as she continued, pulling out a handful of the wiring, "Cenarians." Then she identified the element he had mentioned as, "Chronons."

She looked up at him and smiled, as he seemed to get it. "Point of origin. Right." he muttered.

"Here it is; Christie, Agatha." she pulled out a book. There were several more stacked neatly underneath it. This was where she hid things she didn't trust herself not to lose around the TARDIS... or, since he had started travelling with her, if she wanted to keep them away from the Master. Now, she handed the book to Donna. Then she closed the lid of the chest and turned the dial, muttering, "Master..." before opening it again. She took the top item, "Here, you can have this back." she said, handing him the T.V. remote.

He raised an eyebrow, and asked, "You have an entire section of that thing just for me?" and he leaned over to see what was in there, but she slammed the lid quickly.

"Yes." she answered, smiling, "Or at least, things I took from you, one way or another. And no, you're not allowed to go under the console, so don't even try it."

Donna, who had been staring with mild amusement, and a bit of incredulity at the unusual alphabetised chest, finally looked at the book, "Wow, she really did remember." The Master looked at the book, too, holding the T.V. remote very possessively, as he did so. The book in question was Death in the Clouds, and it had a picture of a giant wasp- or more likely intended to look like a close-up or a normal wasp- in front of a plane.

The Doctor nodded, "Somewhere in the back of her mind, it all lingered. And that's not all. Look at the copyright page."

Donna read aloud, "Facsimile edition, published in the year... five billion?"

The Doctor grinned brightly, nodding, "People never stop reading them. She is the best selling novelist, of all time."

"But she never knew." Donna said sadly.

"Well, no one knows how they're gonna be remembered." the Doctor pointed out, "All we can do is hope for the best. Maybe that's what kept her writing. Same thing keeps me travelling."

"I don't know, we could just go forward and find out." the Master pointed out.

"You want a Christmas Carol revelation that badly, Master?" the Doctor asked, smiling brightly at him.

"Not sure it'll end up that way." the Master said, turning and walking away as the Doctor set about hiding that chest of collectable junk.

"So where to next?" Jenny asked. She seemed to have been watching over her book instead of reading.

"Hmm... random?" the Doctor suggested, glancing at Donna.

"Sure, why not?"

But before the Doctor could set the controls, she heard the Master's voice again.

"Hello Captain." The Doctor looked up, startled, to find the Master was using Martha's old phone, "Guess who. Yep. When was the last time you saw me? Oh, good, I dialled the right temporal area code. You know who Agatha Christie is, right? Well, you know the day she disappeared, at Lady Clemency Eddison's house? Yes, three people were murdered there. No, I didn't do it. Just go there and say hello to a man named Davenport. Don't ask why, I bet he'll tell you, anyway. I did _not _ need to hear that, you freak. Oh, and remind me, sometime, to tell you about when the Doctor and I visited Pompeii. Volcano day. No, that _was _ me. Yeah, I hate you too. Goodbye!" he pressed the button to end the call, and looked up at the Doctor with an innocent smile. "What?"

"I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not." she answered.

"You heard Donna, earlier." the Master pointed out, "Poor guy couldn't confide in anyone about his loss. Figured it'd be... what is it you always go on about? Oh yeah, the right thing to do."

The Doctor shrugged, deciding it was probably wise not to think to much about it, "You might be right."

x x x


	24. Minor Bird

**Author's Note**: No, we're not doing the Library. My excuse? I originally wrote this before we found out who River was, and I theorised that in the context of the technology available in this fic she could have been a future version of the Master. Also, I didn't much like her back then (she has kind of grown on me since The Time of Angels, though).

x x x

**Chapter 24: Minor Bird**

x x x

"I finally get a chance to enjoy myself, real live minions to do my bidding, nice weather, no one trying to kill me, and you're dragging me off on some bloody sight-seeing trip instead?" the Master griped, "I wanna stay at the resort, with Donna and Jenny!"

"Donna likes you too much to use the restraint band, and I still haven't told Jenny just how evil you really are, yet." the Doctor retorted.

"That harpy likes me?" the Master asked, surprised.

"She specifically likes your sense of humour. And I think she feels sorry for you, since the incident in Pompeii." Pity. From a human. That was the last thing he wanted.

"I hate you."

The Doctor smiled, deliberately misinterpreting the snide remark as a compliment, "I know." she said brightly, and the Master glared more. He'd watched Star Wars two days ago, he knew the joke there. And what's worse, he knew it was deliberate.

"Oh, let's just get this over with." the Master muttered, sulkily, "The sooner we get back, the sooner I can start ordering servants around."

x x x

The two of them sat next to each other, the Doctor had the window seat, because she actually wanted to see the... he forgot what it was that the Doctor dragged him along to see, he didn't care. Something about crystals and dangerous radiation that could kill you in a second or two if you tried going to see it on foot. They should have brought Captain Jack, he'd love to see what Xtonic radiation would do to the immortal.

A hostess had appeared at their row of seats, "That's the headphones for channels one to thirty-six, modem link for 3D vidgames, complimentary earplugs, complimentary slippers, complimentary juice pack, and complimentary peanuts. I must warn you some products may contain nuts." she informed them, almost as quickly as the Doctor could prattle on a good day.

"That'll be the peanuts." the Doctor replied, smiling a bit too cheerfully.

"Enjoy your trip." and the hostess left to repeat herself to the next passenger.

"Public transport. It's so... public. Utterly disgusting." the Master muttered coldly, before stealing the headphones that the Doctor had been given, and trying to figure out which button switched channels. Remote controls should all be standard issue, numbers to pick channels, menu buttons that make sense, and/or a big red button to blow something up. This remote had none of the above.

The Doctor was already trying to socialise with the humans on board. The Master tried to ignore her, as he finally figured out how the remote worked, and found a T.V. station that was showing a cartoon in which a small yellow electric rat-like creature was beating up a red fiery lizard thing. This looked interesting.

He only averted his attention from the abuse of small cutesy creatures, when the hostess finally started her safety speech. He loved these. Listening to the number of ways for humans to die on a vessel like this, it was almost disappointing that it didn't actually happen more often.

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon-" maybe it was a good thing that they didn't bring Captain Jack, after all, "-welcome on board the Crusader 50, if you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment. Doors!" and the doors sealed. He liked to imagine they did so ominously, as if that had been the last chance the humans had of getting out alive. "Shields down!" And the window-shields slid down to block out the deadly sunlight.

"Why do we even have windows, hmm?" the Master muttered to the Doctor, who just 'shh'ed him.

The hostess continued to speak, "I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder, Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear, and should we need to use it... you first."

"I like her." the Master noted, as the hostess laughed at her own rather morbid little joke.

"Now I will hand you over to Driver Joe." the hostess finished.

And a voice crackled over the intercom, "Driver Joe at the wheel! There's been a diamondfall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map." the Master glanced briefly at the screen, annoyed that his duelling rodents had been switched to a much less interesting channel, "The journey covers five hundred kliks to the Multifaceted Coast, duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for travelling with us, and as they used to say in the olden days, wagons roll!"

As the engines started up, the hostess spoke again, "For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retrovids of Earth Classics." something very uninteresting replaced the map on the screens. "Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein." a hologram appeared, "Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat - the Animation Archives." and a projector was activated.

The Master pressed buttons on his remote, and found the homicidal rodent again. It had now finished with the lizard and was duelling something that looked suspiciously like a talking cat, while two humans taunted some kid about how they were going to steal said electric rat.

"Four hours of funtime! Enjoy!" he barely heard the hostess over the two cartoon humans pretending to know how rhyme and verse worked.

Unfortunately, he also heard the rest of the 'entertainment' even with the earphones to try to block it out. He pushed them into his ears with some more force, but to no avail, and muttered, "I see why they offer earplugs."

A few seconds passed, during which he actually learned the electric rat's name, but then all the screens died and the cacophony ceased. He turned slowly to look at the Doctor, who was holding her sonic screwdriver and smiling innocently.

"I was watching that!" he complained.

"I do apologise, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon. We seem to have had a failure of the Entertainment System." the hostess said, in a calming tone, almost immediately. As the hostess spoke, the Doctor put away the sonic screwdriver, still trying to look innocent, and failing miserably, now.

The Master continued to glare at the Doctor. "What?" she asked, feigning confusion.

"I. Was. Watching. That." he hissed.

"You have strange taste in television." she said dismissively.

"But what do we do now?" one of the other passengers whined.

"We've got four hours of this! Four hours of just... sitting here?" another, sat next to the first complainer, asked.

"Tell you what." the Doctor said brightly, "We'll have to talk to each other instead!" and her infuriating grin grew ever wider at the confused looks she got in response to that statement.

The Master groaned in revulsion, and covered his face with his hands, "This will be hell." he said coldly.

x x x

The Doctor appeared to be having the time of her lives, chattering inanely with the humans. The Master had sulked, and probably would have attempted to repair the television, if it wasn't built into the vessel's hull and therefore inaccessible from inside. He had finally found a situation in which Captain Jack would have been useful, send him outside to fix the T.V.

As the pre-packed individual meals- easily comparable to twenty-first century airline food- were served, he took it upon himself to infuriate the Doctor, since she _had _ chosen to sit just across the aisle him to talk to the human woman there. Blonde. Figures.

"Oh, I've done plenty of that. Travelling on my own. I love it. Do what you want! Go anywhere!" the Doctor was saying. Nothing good to insult there. He would bide his time, and find the perfect opportunity.

"No, I'm still getting used to it." the human woman said, sounding sad, "I've... found myself single rather recently, not by choice."

"What happened?" the Doctor asked.

"Oh, the usual. She needed her own space, as they say. A different galaxy, in fact. I reckon that's enough space, don't you?" she asked.

"Yeah." the Doctor muttered, "I had a friend who went to a different universe." That would be Rose, wouldn't it? He was pretty sure she was talking about Rose.

The blonde frowned, examining their meal, "Oh, what's this, chicken or beef?"

"Soylent green." the Master said clearly, before happily starting to eat his own food, without looking at either of them.

"I think I've just lost my appetite." the Doctor muttered, and he could feel her glare even though he refused to meet her eyes. He grinned proudly, and decided it had been worth the entire trip for that alone.

x x x

Some time later, the Master was failing to sleep, because some bloody genius had decided to run a slide show. That wouldn't be so bad, if it didn't come with a rather loud running commentary.

"So, this is Midnight, d'you see? Bombarded by the sun! Xtonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. Dee Dee, next slide! It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this. Because you see... the history is fascinating, because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system, there couldn't be. Before the Leisure Palace Company moved in, no-one had come here in all eternity. No living thing."

"But how d'you know? I mean, if no-one can go outside..." someone just had to ask. With the added encouragement, whoever was doing the talking would go on for twice as long.

"Oh, his imagination! Here we go!" another passenger said, seemingly just as annoyed by the increase in time to be wasted on this conversation.

"He's got a point, though." the Doctor noted.

"Exactly!" the one with the slide-show declared, "We look upon this world through glass. Safe inside our metal box. Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

Just then, the engines died, and the transport came to a shaky stop. It had been just about two and a half hours of travel. It was supposed to be a four hour journey. The Master slowly sat up, as if he hadn't been pretending to sleep this whole time, and looked around carefully.

"We've stopped. Have we stopped?" one passenger, a female, he finally bothered to notice, demanded.

The man sitting next to her asked, "Are we there?"

But the woman next to Mr Slideshow shook her head, "We can't be, it's too soon."

"We're just past half-way there." the Master said flatly. He did not need to check a time-piece of any kind to recognise the exact amount of time that had passed on this infernally tedious journey. He _was _ a Time Lord, after all.

"They don't stop. Crusader vehicles never stop." Mr Slideshow said adamantly.

"Well this one just did." the Master retorted, irritated enough by the slideshow, without having to deal with pure human stupidity right now as well.

The hostess stepped forwards, and tried to sound calm as she said, "If you could just... return to your seats, it's... just a small delay." But she failed. She was scared. This clearly just did not happen. She then went to the intercom, to communicate with the driver.

"Maybe just a pit stop." the rather pompous-looking man who had spoken before suggested.

"There's no pit to stop in, I've been on this expedition fourteen times, they never stop." Mr Slideshow retorted.

"Well evidently, we have stopped, so there's no point in denying it." the blonde put in.

A teenager suddenly laughed, "We've broken down!" he suggested coldly.

"Thanks, Jethro." the woman who was with Mr Pompous said just as coldly.

"In the middle of nowhere!" Jethro continued.

"That's enough, now stop it!" Mr Pompous, who must have been Jethro's father- the woman next to him could well be related as well- snapped.

The hostess returned from her communication with the driver, and smiled a bit too widely. Her eyes showed fear, and her movement was tense, rather than its previous attempt at feigning friendliness, "Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we're just experiencing a short... delay, the driver needs to stabilise the engine feeds. It's perfectly routine, so if you could just stay in your seats-"

But the Doctor decided now was the time to start being a nuisance. Well, moreso that usual, at any rate. She walked past the hostess, towards the cabin door.

"No, I'm sorry, Ma'am, I- could you please-" the hostess tried.

"Don't even bother." the Master said bluntly, "You'll not stop her when she thinks she can help."

The Doctor flashed her psychic paper at the hostess, "There you go, engine expert. Won't be a minute." she said dismissing the hostess's concerns without even really looking at the woman.

And the Doctor disappeared into the cockpit.

The Master rolled his eyes, and then looked around carefully. He wasn't really using his eyes, so much as other senses he tended not to let humans know he had. There was something distinctly wrong about the way they had stopped. Something... deliberate. Though who's fault it had been, he wasn't sure.

"What do you reckon is going on?" the blonde woman asked the Master, from across the aisle, startling him out of his attempt to read time itself, outside the vessel.

He turned in his seat and looked at her, really looked. A faint shadow of pain in her eyes, probably what she'd been talking to the Doctor about, before. But there was something else, as well. A trace of future, but he had never been that good at reading what those traces meant. He'd seen similar traces around Donna, but he'd assumed that usually happened when you hung around the Doctor for too long. Jenny gave off a similar aura. But this one seemed somehow stronger, darker.

He shook his head sharply, to dispel the sudden sense of dread in the air. "I'm not sure." If the Doctor's here, it's bound to be a big bad world-shattering thing that he'll be forced to help fix. He hated those.

But at that moment, the Doctor returned, and sat herself down just behind the Master, clearly deep in thought.

"What did they say?" the blonde asked immediately, "Did they tell you? What is it, what's wrong?"

"Oh, just stabilising, happens all the time." the Doctor lied. It was obvious to the Master, but most humans would probably not notice that it was insincere.

"I don't need this." the blonde complained, "I'm on a schedule. This is completely unnecessary!"

The young woman next to Mr Slideshow spoke up quietly, "Excuse me, Doctor, but they're micropetrol engines, aren't they?" And there is the big flaw in the Doctor's lie. Only it really had been the driver's lie first.

"Now, don't bother the lady." Mr Slideshow chided, but to no effect.

"My father was a mechanic." Mr Slideshow's assistant- because she really had to be, didn't she?- persisted, "Micropetrol doesn't stabilise, what does 'stabilise' mean?"

"Don't worry, they're sorting it out." the Doctor said, frowning now.

"So it's not the engines?" Mr Slideshow asked.

"It's just a little pause, that's all." the Doctor tried to sound reassuring, but she was just as edgy as the hostess had been.

"How much air have we got?" Mr Slideshow asked.

"Professor, it's fine." his assistant said flatly.

"What did he say?" the older woman- who was in some way related to that teenager- demanded.

"Nothing!" the Doctor snapped quickly.

"Are we running out of air?" the woman insisted. Did she _want _ to start a panic?

"I was just speculating." the professor muttered.

At this moment, the hostess returned, and the man next to Mrs Panic-Attack demanded of her, "Is that right, Miss? Are we running out of air?"

"Is that what the captain said?" Mrs Panic-Attack insisted.

"If you could all just remain calm-" the hostess began.

"How much air have we got?" Mrs Panic-Attack demanded.

"Mum, just stop it." Jethro, the morbid teenager, snapped. He was beginning to see why the kid was a goth, it would be impossible to be cheerful with a crazy-woman like that as a mother.

"I assure you, everything is under control." the hostess said, in her best calming voice.

"Well, doesn't look like it to me!" Jethro's father snapped. It had to be a family unit, really. The parents were perfect for each other, and he was beginning to genuinely pity the kid.

Everyone began talking over each other, at this point, the professor's assistant trying to provide a logical point of reason, Jethro's parents trying to incite a full-blown riot, and the hostess trying to calm them all down.

"Everyone!" the Doctor tried to speak over the noise, but no one seemed to hear her.

"May I?" the Master asked, grinning cruelly.

She nodded, "Please."

"_EVERYBODY! SHUT. THE HELL. UP!_" the Master yelled, rather suddenly, at the top of his voice. The words actually echoed in the small vessel, and the Doctor rubbed her ears in a joking imitation of pain. Everyone had shut up.

The Master gestured to the Doctor, who nodded to thank him, still rubbing one ear pointedly, "Thank you. Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend Dee Dee."

The professor's assistant looked startled at all attention being called to her, but then, "Oh! Um, it's just that- well, the air's on a circular filter so... we could stay breathing for ten years."

"There you go." the Doctor said, cheerfully, "And I've spoken to the captain, I can guarantee you, everything's fine."

Then there was an unexpected sound in the silence that followed. Someone- or more likely something- knocking on the outer wall of their vessel. Quite loudly, too. Serves her right, guarantee everything is fine, indeed. Famous last words.

"What was that?" Jethro's mother asked, startled.

"Glad I wasn't imagining that one." the Master muttered under his breath. It had only been two slow knocks, anyway. Not the drums. He hadn't heard those very loudly in a while now. Not since the last time someone had tried to poison him.

"It must be the metal. We're cooling down, it's just settling." the professor suggested.

"Rocks. Could be rocks falling." Dee Dee added another rational explanation.

But the Master would swear the temperature had dropped a fraction of a degree and the air had suddenly become charged. The humans wouldn't notice it, but he exchanged a significant look with the Doctor, who nodded to show she had felt it too. There was something out there, and it was potentially dangerous. Not necessarily hostile, but dangerous all the same.

"What I want to know is, how long do we have to sit here." Jethro's father demanded.

Thankfully, he was silenced by another slow double-knock on the other side of the ship.

"What is that?" the blonde asked, her voice wavering slightly.

"Is someone out there?" the mother asked.

"Now, don't be ridiculous!" the professor said, snorting.

"Like I said, it could be rocks." his assistant said, a little unsure of this herself.

"We're out in the open." the hostess pointed out, "Nothing could fall against the sides."

And there was the knocking again.

"Knock knock." the Doctor said quietly.

"Who's there?" the teenager answered, almost automatically, but with a morbid grin that implied he thought this was a brilliant game. The Master was beginning to actually like this kid.

"Is there something out there? Well? Anyone?" the blonde asked.

And the knocking repeated, again.

"I don't like this." the Master muttered.

"What the hell is making that noise?" the blonde snapped, almost a whimper. She wasn't the only one getting scared, either.

"I'm sorry, but the light out there is Xtonic, that means it would destroy any living thing, in a split-second. It is impossible for someone to be outside." the professor tried to rationalise.

But the knocking persisted, another two beats.

"Well, what the hell is that, then?" the blonde demanded.

The Doctor moved to where the sound had last come from, and started listening at the wall, with her stethoscope. Most people would wonder where she had been hiding something like that, but the Master knew that the pockets on that jacket were dimensionally transcendental.

"Ma'am, you really should get back to your seat." the hostess said, not sounding like she actually expected this instruction to be followed.

The Master stood now, as well, pointing to the sources of the sound, in order as he walked slowly down the ship. Near the front of the ship. A bit down the side. Further down. Where the Doctor was now, near the back. And he stopped at the emergency exit.

The knocking sounded right in front of him, and he took a step back from the door. He glanced at the Doctor, who had been watching him. Everyone jumped as the door started rattling.

"It's trying the door!" Jethro's mother yelled, horrified.

The professor sighed, exasperated, "There is no 'it', there's nothing out there. Can't be."

The door gave one more rattle, then the knocking sounded overhead. From the roof of the ship! And then very quickly, it came to the other door, the way they had entered the vehicle.

"That's the entrance. Can it get in?" the mother demanded.

"No. That door's on two-hundred weight of hydraulics." the professor's assistant, Dee Dee, supplied.

"Stop it." the professor snapped, "Don't encourage them."

She rounded on him, and demanded, "What do you think it is?"

The father then went to the door, in spite of his wife's protest of, "Biff, don't."

"Mr Cane, I really don't think you should-" the Doctor started.

"Nah, it's cast iron, that door." Biff said with a nod. The he knocked three times on the door, to prove how solid it was. And he was answered with three knocks from outside.

"Three times! Did you hear that, it did it three times?" Biff's wife cried.

"It answered." Jethro added brightly, as if this was a game.

"It did it three times!" his mother repeated, horrified.

"All right, everyone calm down." the Doctor said, trying to make it sound like an order. Even the Master, who knew calming down was actually a good idea, would have ignored that one.

"No, but it answered, it... answered, don't tell me that thing's not alive, it answered him!" the blonde said, on the verge of panic.

As if to confirm the blonde's statement, three knocks were heard from the door again.

"I really must insist, you get back to your seats!" the hostess said, clearly upset by the situation, but trying to hide it. Almost succeeding, too.

"No!" the blonde snapped, "Don't just stand there telling us the rules! You're the hostess, you're supposed to do something!"

The Master leaned past the professor, and knocked four times on the wall. His beat. And it answered. The Doctor gave him an amused half-glare. He wasn't sure if she was protesting the fact she had been about to do something similar, or if she was rebuking his choice of beat.

The blonde was in full panic mode, now. "What is it, what the hell's making that noise? She said she'd get me. Stop it, make it stop, somebody make it stop! Don't just stand there looking at me, it's not my fault, he started it with his stories."

"Calm down!" Dee Dee snapped at her.

"And he made it worse." the blonde continued, as if no one else had said anything to her.

"You're not helping!" Biff's wife yelled.

"Why couldn't you leave it alone? Stop staring at me! Just tell me what the hell it is!" she looked like she was going to cry.

"Calm down!" Dee Dee shouted again.

"You feel it?" the Master asked, glancing at the Doctor, then at the blonde. The trace of future he had sensed in the blonde woman was suddenly so much stronger. Almost present tense. Something in it felt so familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"No." the Doctor answered, frowning, "What?"

Just then, the knocking grew in volume and frequency, until it was a continuous noise, coming from seemingly all around them. The blonde was still backing away, cowering, and stumbled towards the cockpit door. "It's coming for me, ohh it's coming for me, it's coming for me... It's coming for me! It's coming for me!" she shouted, sobbing. Then she screamed.

The shuttled rocked violently, knocking over everyone who was standing. The lights flickered out and electronics decided now was a good time to explode, sending sparks flying.

Finally, once the ship had settled into one place again, the Master picked himself up, looking around warily. He heard Biff reassuring his wife that they had survived, and saw the Doctor scrambling to her feet not far away, "Almost as bad as your driving." he snarked at her, and she glared.

"Everyone else all right?" she asked.

"Earthquake, must be." the professor said weakly.

"But that's impossible." Dee Dee protested, "The ground is fixed, it's solid."

The hostess appeared to have recovered from the shock, too, and said, "We've got torches, everyone, take a torch, they're in the back of the seats." Everyone obeyed this suggestion, even the Master, who usually tried to avoid accepting instructions from other people.

The mother seemed to be crying, as she reached out to her son, "Oh, Jethro, sweetheart, come here."

"Nevermind me, what about her?" he replied, pointing to the blonde. She wasn't moving. Sitting silently, perfectly still, with her back to them. In the dark. The seats around her had been torn out by something. Some incredible force.

While the two most irritating humans in the galaxy- and he'd met the President Winters- bickered about the seats in question, the Master stepped closer to them, and examined the torn fabric of one carefully. It wasn't cut, it was ripped. Just like the now-twisted metal that had held them down, still hot.

"The wall's still in one piece." he noted unhelpfully. Maybe the humans wouldn't have noticed that detail right away, but they would certainly have noticed by their instantaneous deaths if it had been broken.

"Yeah, see." the Doctor said brightly, "No serious damage, just aesthetic. It's over, and we're still alive. We're safe."

"For now." the Master said quietly, hoping none of the humans heard him. And he was grateful that they seemed more attentive, right now, to the hostess' inability to contact the cockpit.

"I'm not getting any response, the intercom must be down." she said, before doing perhaps the second stupidest thing she could have done. She opened the door. And a blinding light shone into the ship, until she closed it again. No cockpit. That can't be good.

While the humans bickered, the Doctor used her sonic screwdriver on the panel next to the door. The Master tuned out the debate on the obviously dead pilot and engineer. He was focusing on the blonde human. She still hadn't moved, but she was clearly still alive. That aura of future had gone, whatever had happened to her when the lights went out, that was what he had sensed. Something else was there now, a flicker of darkness, the only emotion he could sense from her, but he really could not identify it.

Finally, he heard the teenager speak, which he bothered to listen to, because the teenager was one of only three relatively intelligent humans on the vessel. "Doctor. Look at her." he was pointing at the catatonic woman.

"I'm not sure what's wrong with her." the Master said quietly, looking up at the Doctor, "But she's still alive, not injured."

"Why won't she turn around?" Jethro asked.

"What's her name?" he heard the professor ask.

"Silvestry. Mrs Sky Silvestry." the hostess answered shakily.

"Sky? Can you hear me?" the Doctor asked, kneeling down next to the Master, "Are you all right? Can you move, Sky? Just look at me."

The teenager spoke again, "That noise, from the outside."

"What of it?" his mother snapped.

"It's stopped." the teen answered.

"Well, thank God for that." his mother said coldly. The Master bit back the automatic snide remark of 'your welcome', deciding this was not a good time for it. And he didn't want to get zapped by the restraint band again, even if he was learning to tolerate the lower settings of it.

"But what if it's not outside anymore?" the teen persisted, "What if it's inside?"

"Inside? Where?" his mother demanded, fear returning to her voice.

"It was heading for her." Jethro said pointedly, nodding towards Sky.

"Sky." the Doctor continued, "It's all right, Sky. I just want you to turn around, look at me."

Very slowly, as if she was afraid, Sky turned to face them. She stared, wide-eyed, at the Doctor. But there was no genuine fear in those eyes, just a glazed not-all-there look. The Master recongised it well, having seen it in the eyes of countless people whose minds he had dominated. But this was not his work.

Her gaze turned from one passenger to another, each movement a bit sharper than the average human, finally settling on the Doctor. Slowly, the Doctor tilted her head to one side, staring into her eyes, undoubtedly seeing exactly what the Master had seen there, though whether she recognised what it was she saw, he couldn't tell. Sky tilted her head to match. At this odd movement, the Doctor tilted her head to the other side, and her movement was mimicked again.

"Sky?" the Doctor asked cautiously.

"Sky?" she repeated, matching tone and inflection perfectly.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, but again Sky repeated her, word-for-word, a perfect imitation. "Are you hurt?" but the only answer was her own words repeated again. "You don't have to talk." But Sky repeated her again, "I'm trying to help." Again, she was repeated. "My name's the Doctor." Sky mimicked her again. "Ok, can you stop now?" but apparently she could not, because she repeated that too.

"I don't think she can." the Master said quietly. Usually, he would find this sort of childish game very amusing, but Sky was beginning to genuinely scare him.

It was the flicker of darkness behind her eyes that did it, he thought, as Sky's gaze turned on him, "I don't think she can." she mimicked.

"Why's she doing that?" the professor asked, only to be repeated by Sky.

"She's gone mad." Biff declared, and Sky mimicked that too.

"Stop it." Biff's wife ordered.

"Stop it." Sky repeated.

"I said stop it!" but all Sky did was repeat that too.

"All of you shut up!" the Master snapped, frowning as Sky repeated that as well.

But his orders weren't taken seriously, as Jethro grinned, looking at Sky, "My name is Jethro." he said brightly, and his grin broadened as Sky mimicked him.

"Jethro, leave it, just stop talking." the Doctor said. Sky repeated her.

The Master didn't take his eyes off Sky through this whole twisted conversation. He was watching those eyes, the glazed look was lifting ever-so-slightly.

The Doctor returned her attention to Sky, and asked, "Why are you repeating?" but her own words were thrown back at her instead of an answer. "What is that, learning?" she continued, and the Master got the impression she was just thinking out loud right now, as Sky repeated the words. "Copying?" Repeated. "Absorbing?" Repeated. "The square root of pi is 1.. Wow!" Sky had started repeating exactly two seconds after the Doctor had started speaking, and continued in perfect time, two second behind, for the entire quote. Got it exactly right, too.

"But that's impossible." the professor noted, only to be mimicked again by Sky.

All-out panic broke out, as the foolish humans started talking over each other, but Sky managed to repeat their words, matching tone and rhythm perfectly, in spite of the confusion.

The Master just listened, watching Sky carefully, the entire time.

"She's getting faster." he said bluntly. The Doctor did a double-take at his words, as Sky copied them. "When you were playing with numbers, she was two seconds behind. Now she's at zero point six." He didn't mention that her eyes were becoming steadily clearer, but he found the malevolent glint appearing as they did to be very disconcerting.

Just then, the main lights came back on, with a loud noise that interrupted the panic briefly.

"_SILENCE!_" the Master yelled, during this brief opportunity. He stood up and turned to face the others, as Sky repeated his order.

He gave each and every human a pointed glare, and made an exaggerated mime of zipping his lips, eyes wide in a way that asked them why the hell hadn't they listened to him in the first place. Then he waved his hand slowly across the room, so he pointed to each individual person without actually stopping the one sweeping gesture.

Everyone remained silent.

Then he moved his hands in a generally accepted sign language for anyone who's lucky enough to have human-esque hands. Asking, 'Who knows sign?' with his back pointedly turned to Sky.

The hostess raised a hand. Everyone else stared blankly.

'Her copying is getting faster. She's learning. We must not speak.'

The Doctor nodded in agreement.

'What's going on?' the hostess asked in sign.

'I don't know what it is, but something is-' he hesitated, glancing at the Doctor as if asking her for help.

'Possessing her. Controlling her.' the Doctor signed, with a raised eyebrow that made it a question.

The Master sighed, 'This is ridiculous.' Then he reached out and touched his hand to the side of the Doctor's face. Her eyes flickered, and he felt his mind run into the metaphorical brick wall of her mental shields. He would have laughed if he'd not been trying to remain silent. Instead he asked her, telepathically, for opinions on what to do.

_I mean, we could just kill it, whatever it is, but she could still be in there, this could be a whole new undiscovered form of life, so I'm sure you'd disagree with that option._

_No kidding_. Finally, the Doctor responded to him, and she smirked, bemused, at his confusion. She had never blocked him so thoroughly out of her mind before. Not when they were younger, not when she had been his prisoner on the Valiant, and not at any point between the two. He hadn't tried, since then, unsure where the invisible walls of his prison stood. _You're not a prisoner for my benefit, but for your own_. she noted.

_So what do we do about the minor-bird over there? _ Thoughts travelled so much faster than one could communicate even with words, let alone sign.

_Getting faster, you said?_

-Give her a few more hysterical hissy-fits from goth-kid's mother, and she'll be talking before us.-

_That's... that's not even funny_.

_I'm not sure I was joking_.

"What're they doing?" Jethro asked, and he was mimicked again by Sky, point-two of a second after he had begun to speak.

The Master turned to glare at the teenager, once again miming zipping his lips. The Doctor, being in contact with his mind as he did it, would be able to sense that he put a telepathically reinforced command into that glare, rather than just expecting the teen to obey of his own free will. The boy actually staggered back, startled. He had felt the command, rather than just being compelled to follow it.

_You know, you've given me an idea_.

_What?_

_Try to communicate with it telepathically._

_Too dangerous._

_I wasn't telling you to do it._

_Oh no you don't._

She smiled, amused, _Jealous?_

_I don't want her to hurt you._

_I can take care of myself._

_Remind me exactly how many times one of your companions has saved your life, again._

The Doctor pulled back, sharply, breaking the telepathic link with a glare at him. She then gave him a very rude gesture in sign, before walking over to Sky.

"Don't." the Master said, frowning. It was half-hearted, because he knew she wouldn't listen, but he really wished she would. Sky spoke almost at exactly the same time as him.

"How did she do that?" Dee Dee asked, and Sky spoke the same words at the same time.

"How many times to I have to tell you all to. _SHUT. UP!_" the Master snarled, turning to glare at the offending human. He just missed the moment where the Doctor touched the side of Sky's face, initiating the telepathic link. He didn't miss the fact that she failed to repeat him, though. Then he heard them both shriek in obvious pain, and spun back, staring in horror at them both. The Doctor didn't move, but Sky quickly scrambled away from her.

"I did warn her." he muttered under his breath, staring now at Sky again, "What are you?" he demanded.

"I'm... I'm Sky." she said, warily. The Doctor repeated, this time, "It... when she touched me, it... left me." she sounded confused, and this time the fear was genuine, not an illusion.

"I thought there was something fishy about her!" Biff declared, "She knew what was going on, all along!"

"You only have your own limited brain power to thank for the fact you did not!" the Master snarled, turning on him.

Biff flinched at the glare, but then stood tall and glared right back.

"We need to get rid of it." the hostess said, suddenly, "Now it's safe to talk... we have to get it off the ship!"

"Yes, we do." Sky agreed, immediately. The Doctor repeated her.

"The door's that way." the Master snarled at Sky, with a gesture that indicated he thought she should be the one to leave the ship, and not the Doctor.

"What- what are you implying?" Sky asked, backing away from him. He glanced at the Doctor as she repeated again, the timing between original speech and repetition was getting very gradually longer.

"If it wanted to possess one being, why go through another to get to the eventual goal? There was nothing to gain from such a strategy, in this situation." he said coldly.

He saw the flash in her eyes. Anger, rather than the fear a human should show at the accusation, "I don't know what you mean." she said, and the Doctor repeated again.

"I know what it's like." he said, suddenly taking a new tactic, his tone became almost charming, "Burning, death. I've felt it. The desperate need to survive, regardless the cost, the pain, the innocent bystanders. You can tell me." he reached out to touch the side of her face, but she backed away.

"You have no idea!" she yelled, and the Doctor repeated her words. He smiled coldly, she had just dropped her act, that in itself was a victory, "I watched my world burn, my friends, my family, the soil turned to glass, the air to poison!"

"And you remained, how?" he asked, almost gently.

"Pure will to be." Again, the Doctor repeated. He was sure there would be a point where the repetition stopped, and at that point the Doctor would be lost.

"As I said, I know." he said, with a low growl. The humans on the ship were clearly terrified, now, and had all backed up as far away from the Master and Sky as they could. Only smart thing they've done all day. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours." he added with a cold smirk.

Sky tilted her head to one side, and then nodded. He touched the side of her face, and projected the memory. The fire, the pain. His body burned alive, burned to death. Six times before he escaped it with his last regeneration, the one so few Time Lords ever survive. But he did, even as the flames still seared his flesh, he managed to live. Broken, completely. Held together only by pure malice and will to live. And he shared not only the knowledge, but the pain of it.

She flinched, but then he saw her memories. This world had once held life. Almost as varied and bountiful as Earth. And her race had been peaceful and prosperous. Until the star expanded. Not quite nova, in a way it was worse. Poisoning the world, making it barren in seconds. A fossil, crystallised and lifeless. And the searing agony of her death, the eternal pain of what she had become. It seemed unimaginable to him that she could possibly have survived in that incorporeal state, but here she was.

He also saw a flicker of an image of the cause of their doom, and that caused him to cringe more than the pain she shared. The Daleks. He wondered why they would attack a world that had yet to develop even basic space travel. But it had definitely been one of their ships that she had seen circling the planet before the star expanded.

He broke the connection, and stared at her in shock, "Why these two?" he asked, indicating Sky, then the Doctor.

"I needed a body, and a mind." she said simply, "I was less than nothing, Sky's body was perfect, but her mind was broken when I took her. I needed another, and your mate's mind was literally offered to me." The Doctor began speaking two-point-six seconds after Sky, still repeating word-for-word. He glanced at her, when the word 'mate' was spoken by Sky, and saw her eyes widen with mild horror as she repeated it.

He blinked and turned to stare at Sky again, "What did you call her?" he asked, laughing.

"It seems obvious to me." Sky said, her tone almost teasing.

"It seems obvious to me." the Doctor repeated. He knew the fact she said it was only the side-effect of whatever this being had done to try to take her mind, but he couldn't help but smirk with amusement at the suggestion.

But he turned back to Sky again, and took on his most threatening tone as he spoke, now, "You will give her back."

"Or you'll do what?" she demanded, repeated by the Doctor.

"Throw her out the airlock!" Biff suggested.

"Excellent idea." the Master agreed, smirking cruelly at the being that possessed Sky.

She suddenly looked panicked, "No! You can't send me back to that!" she shrieked in terror. And while he could overlook it in Sky's voice, it hurt him to hear that tone in the Doctor's. Since when did he care about her fear or pain? Her life, always, but he _enjoyed _ seeing the Doctor suffer.

"Then let the Doctor go." he snarled, taking a step towards her in the most ominous manner he was capable of.

"But... I need her mind!" Sky cried. Again the Doctor repeated, now three-point-two seconds behind.

"What about Sky?" the hostess asked, suddenly.

"She said Sky's mind was broken, that's why she needed the Doctor's mind." the Master said, as if he thought that the hostess was an irritating two-year-old asking questions about things that should not need to be explained. Really, aside from the age-reference, it was entirely accurate.

The being nodded, "That's correct." she said coldly, "Even if I could give Sky up, she would be nothing. Brain-dead." Three-point four seconds later, the Doctor repeated.

"Give the Doctor back." he ordered, "Or we will kill you to get her back." he smirked, cold and cruel, "Choose between restoring her mind, and trusting her to help you- which I have no doubt she will- or returning to the undeath you have suffered for so long."

"I- I can't. I need this mind, please!" she begged. Again, it hurt to hear that tone when the Doctor repeated her.

"I suppose a final death is also an option." he noted, "But somehow I doubt it appeals."

Sky was crying, now, as she fell to her knees, "Please don't do this!" Three-point-seven.

"Ten seconds, then we throw you out the airlock." the Master said coldly.

"No... please... I... I can't..." she sobbed. He cringed when the Doctor repeated.

"Ten." Sky continued to whimper and mutter indecipherable pleas, "Nine. Eight. Seven." Only now did the Doctor begin to mimic Sky's whimpering. It hurt to hear it, and he still didn't understand why. "Six." He still hated her. "Five." Didn't he? "Four."

"Wait!" Sky shrieked, "I'll- I'll do it. You can have your precious Doctor back!" It was snarled, angry and pained at the same time. And suddenly Sky froze, crouched on the ground, still on her knees. Eyes wide and showing genuine fear now. She was defenceless, if they wanted to they could still throw her out, and she could not stop them. He seriously considered the option, but only for a fraction of a second.

He heard a sudden intake of breath, and he looked to see the Doctor had collapsed on the ground. He was at her side before he knew what he was doing, and helped her to sit up. "Did you see anything, before she-?" he wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. The creature that had possessed Sky had tried to steal the Doctor's mind, forcibly taken her thoughts, memories and voice without her permission.

"No." she shook her head, "It was too quick. I barely touched her, and then-" she shook her head once more, and leaned against the Master as if she genuinely believed he could- and would- protect her.

Several seconds of silence passed- during which the two Time Lords simply sat there, the Master with an arm around the Doctor's shoulders, allowing her to take comfort in his presence- before he decided the question really needed to be asked, "What are you going to do with her?"

"I'm not sure." the Doctor answered, slowly looking up at Sky, with a slight frown on her face. Most sentient beings would want to persecute any creature that would attack them like that, but the Doctor's answer still failed to surprise him, "There aren't too many ways to give her a mind without harming someone else."

"There are ways, though." he noted.

"You'd probably know better than I would." she said, looking up at him and smiling weakly, "You're the one with a history of possessions."

"That was lifetimes ago."

x x x

The humans had wisely chosen to avoid the three other beings, even though Sky remained silent now, and the two Time Lords posed them no threat. They had heard quite clearly what the Master had said about knowing the strange being's suffering, and Jethro had heard the Doctor mention possessions, and passed the information on. There was complete silence until the rescue ship arrived.

When it did, the Doctor explained what had happened. In detail. She offered to take Sky, to try to help her, but the authorities wanted to deal with her themselves. The Doctor tried to argue, but in the end she only managed to illicit a promise to try to help Sky rather than persecuting her.

Jenny and Donna met them at the terminal, Jenny immediately ran to hug the Doctor, "You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." she answered, forcing a smile, "How was your day?"

"I found the gym." Jenny cheered.

"She spent the whole day running." Donna supplied, "I, on the other hand, failed to so much as get a tan. Not for lack of trying. So... what actually happened, out there, anyway?"

"Some alien thought she could pick on the Doctor." the Master said, shrugging.

"So, for reasons I have yet to figure out, he threatened her, to defend me."

"So you two do like each other, really?" Jenny asked.

"It's complicated." the Doctor said, shaking her head.

"I don't like her, but I don't want to see her dead." the Master added.

"Fun." Jenny said, in a flat and sarcastic tone, backing up a bit from the two, and moving to stand next to Donna.

"I know another place we should visit. You two will probably love it." the Doctor said, leading the others towards the TARDIS.

"Where are we going now?" Jenny asked eagerly.

"Shan Shen. Girls, we're going shopping." she laughed.

Donna cheered, Jenny grinned, and the Master swore vengeance on whichever Earthling had come up with the idea of giving females credit cards.

x x x


	25. Bad Wolf

x x x

**Chapter 25: Bad Wolf**

x x x

What was it with women and shopping? The Doctor had not even been a woman for more than five months- eight if you counted the time on the Valiant- but she was just as bad as Donna. Then again, for all the Master really knew, he might have always been this bad even before the 'accident'. Jenny was a little unsure, having been born to fight, not to appreciate designer clothing, random junk that claims to be ornamental, and exotic food-courts, but she was learning at an alarming rate.

The Master did his best to stay just far enough away from the group so as to avoid being asked to carry anything, but still keep them within sight. It was a much more difficult task than it sounded. The market-place was very crowded.

It was a very colourful street, and since he wasn't paying attention to the items for sale like the girls were, he noticed the detail. Beautiful, really. Although the TARDIS was insistently not translating the banners and signs at all. Hundreds of different languages, all over the place, and only two or three of them were recognisable to the Master. Even those were obscure.

Kirinii script, something he'd only learned by the sheer accident of being stuck on their world for a week. Even the Doctor wouldn't know that one. Very decorative to look at, annoyingly complicated to read. Each symbol was translated to a concept rather than an actual object or verb, and the concepts could mean a dozen different things depending on their context. He'd hated that week, and that planet was lucky it was too primitive for him to bother conquering, or he might have taken it over just to introduce a more intelligible form of writing... and to torture the scribes that used this script.

Devarian calligraphy, another one he'd picked up during the five centuries between leaving the Academy and meeting the Doctor again. Much simpler to read, once you get past the fact it looks like really bad human medics' handwriting. Funny, the Kirinii banner he'd seen could, in the right context, mean exactly the same thing as these Devarian signs.

The third was Makarin, and while he recognised it, he couldn't have translated it if his life depended on it. He would definitely need to suggest to the Doctor the idea of taking a sledgehammer to the TARDIS' translator circuits. Maybe completely re-fit the entire interface. It was dodgy at best, but today it wasn't translating any text at all.

He looked around, and saw the Doctor and Jenny not far ahead, and hurried to catch up, keen to pass on this suggestion right away. This thought was only encouraged by the sight of a stone marker with unreadable runes that somehow looked worryingly like the ancient Skaran language, from way back before the species of that world had discovered anagrams (and in spite of the Master's own liking for anagrams, that had _not _ been his fault!)

"Have you seen Donna?" the Doctor asked, successfully interrupting _that _ train of thought.

"I thought she was with you?" he said, frowning. What had he been about to tell her? Suddenly it seemed irrelevant, it would come back to him eventually.

No, that wasn't his own mind telling him that, that thought came from somewhere else, he was sure. Something powerful, to affect his mind.

What thought? Relax, it'll come back to you later, Master.

He shook his head to dispel the slight moment of confusion, and promptly forgot the entire thing, his full attention focused on the Doctor, and the fact Donna had gotten herself lost.

They didn't need to even begin to search for her, though, because a loud scream drew their attention, then Donna's voice could be heard nearby, demanding, "What the hell is that?"

The Doctor grinned, apparently eager to go and find out what dangerous thing had found Donna, and turned to hurry in that direction. The Master rolled his eyes and followed. He had never gotten into this much trouble without even trying, before he had started travelling with the Doctor like this. And he'd had opportunities to leave her behind, why did he never take them?

A pretty female alien- oh, she could pass for a human to look at, but he could tell that her blood was cold and her eyes did not focus on the physical world- scrambled out of the tent, crying out in horror, "You were so strong. What are you? What will you be? What will you be?"

The Master stepped aside to let her pass, easily able to sense that she was relatively harmless. Not important right now. He followed the Doctor into the tent, where they found Donna, who didn't seem to have been physically hurt, even if she was a bit shocked.

"You alright, Donna?" the Doctor asked, half-smiling, but still showing concern.

The Master was too busy trying not to laugh at the terror the alien had shown to pretend to care about Donna. Okay, so he didn't actively dislike this particular human, but that didn't mean he really cared. In his opinion, the most likely scenario here was that the alien woman had done something to insult Donna's personal pride, and had fled because she'd been on the receiving end of a spectacular rant.

Donna stared at the Doctor for a second, then whimpered something inaudible under her breath and ran over to hug her as if she'd not seen her in years.

"What was that for?" the Doctor asked, bemused.

"I don't know!" Donna said, laughing with what sounded like relief as she hugged the Doctor again.

Jenny appeared behind the Master, now, holding what looked like ice-cream (he wouldn't bet on it, though), "Did I miss something?" she asked, trying to peer into the tent past them.

The Master edged past the Doctor, spotting something moving on the ground. Twitching and dying, to be precise. Some sort of giant beetle. He glanced up at the others, "Ever seen one of these, Doctor?" he asked.

She gently pushed Donna away from the compulsive hugging, and joined him, "I think... it's one of the Trickster's brigade." she said, picking it up and examining it.

The Master had been intelligent enough to leave it alone. Even when dead, many creatures were still potentially dangerous, but no. He idly wondered if she'd be stupid enough to lick it. She seemed to know better, though, and instead, once she set the dead thing down she began poking it with a stick. A stick of incense is still a stick.

As he eyed the creature, the Master could sense an echo in time and reality around it. He wasn't entirely certain what it meant, but it had to have been powerful to linger after the creature's death. By her frown of concentration, the Doctor was also trying to figure out what this was.

"What do you remember?" the Doctor asked, looking up at Donna.

Donna shook her head, sitting down and looking like it hurt to try to think about it, "I'm not sure. You know, like when you try and think of a dream and it just sort of... goes."

"Well, these things are usually relatively harmless." the Doctor explained, "They change a life in tiny little ways. Feed off the potential energy of what should have been. A bit like- oh, wait, you never met those. Nevermind. Anyway, most times, the universe just compensates around it, but with you... great big parallel world!" she grinned at Donna, with what looked somewhat like pride. Well, it did make sense that the Doctor would be pleased with anyone she was friends with thwarting the laws of common sense and temporal-dimensional physics. And this would explain the echo he'd sensed, as well.

"Hold on, you said parallel worlds are sealed off." Donna said, frowning at this contradiction.

"They are. But you had one created around you." the Doctor said, as if this made much difference.

"Hold on a second." the Master said, suddenly, still staring at the creature, "How did it connect to you?"

"It was on my back." Donna said, shifting uncomfortably at the trace of memory left of it.

"_'There is something on your back'_." he said, frowning.

"What?" Donna asked, looking up at him, "That's what they said! I remember people trying to look behind me."

"That's what Lucius said to you... in Pompeii." the Master noted. He remembered that conversation more clearly than he'd like. It was months ago, for them, now, but he still feared the concept Lucius had suggested to him. He was quite happy with the current volume- or lack thereof- of the drums in his mind, right now. He could tune them out when he felt like it.

"Yes, I remember!" Donna said, staring at him in surprise, as it clicked in her mind, "And he told you-" she turned to look at the Doctor, but was clearly trying to remember the exact wording.

"_'She is returning'_." the Master supplied.

"That's right!" Donna declared, as if everything was finally starting to make sense, "There was this woman, I can't remember much. But she talked about you like she knew you."

"Well, that never happened, now." the Doctor said, trying to sound dismissive. And failing.

"No, but she said... the stars... she said the stars are going out." Donna persisted.

"But that world's gone." the Doctor insisted.

"No, but she said it was all worlds." Donna countered, "Every world. She said the darkness is coming, even here."

The Doctor was now watching Donna very intently, "Who was she?"

"I don't know." Donna said, shaking her head and looking away, trying to remember.

"What did she look like?" the Doctor asked, not about to let the subject drop.

"She was-" Donna frowned, and then after a moment came up with an answer, "Blonde."

Clearly Donna didn't believe this was helpful, but the Doctor continued to question, "What was her name?"

"I don't know." Donna said, starting to get angry, whether at the relentless questioning, or her own memory, it was unclear. The Doctor closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to dispel her own frustration at this botched interrogation, as well, but then Donna continued, "But she told me... to warn you. She said... two words." concentration was written all over her face, as she tried to recall the two words in question.

"What two words?" the Doctor asked, and suddenly she actually looked afraid, as if she didn't think she wanted to hear the answer. Even the Master would be on the edge of his seat to hear this... if he'd been sitting down, that is.

"_'Bad Wolf'_."

"What does that mean?" Jenny asked. He'd actually forgotten she'd been standing there. But if she hadn't asked it, he would have. Suddenly, as if a light switch had been turned back on in his brain, he remembered the signs outside, and the two- admittedly rather pathetic- translations he'd worked out. Bad Wolf, that was what they had meant.

But the Doctor didn't seem to hear the question, instead she stood up and left the tent quickly, aiming in the direction of the TARDIS. But she stopped dead as soon as she was outside. The other three followed her, and also stopped to stare.

"Doctor, what the hell is this?" the Master demanded. The words were written in a thousand different languages, happily translated by the TARDIS, who had ignored them until now. And every single sign in the entire marketplace said Bad Wolf. Sneaky little thing, that TARDIS. As if she had planned this, or at least conspired with who-or-whatever had planned it.

The Doctor didn't answer, and instead ran for the TARDIS, not stopping until she was inside. Donna and Jenny followed her, completely confused, but the Master hesitated as he saw the sign on the TARDIS' door. Five different lines of text all now said Bad Wolf. That was particularly weird. Either the chameleon circuit wasn't as broken as he'd thought, or the translation system was more messed up than he'd thought. Either way, he quickly followed the others inside.

The interior was lit in red, and an alarm was sounding. Well, the lighting brought back pleasant memories, but he didn't like the situation enough to waste time getting all nostalgic about world domination. He moved over to where the translation circuits were situated on the underside of the console, and looked at them, ignoring the others.

He heard Donna demanding, "Doctor, what is it? What's Bad Wolf?" but didn't look up. The translation system was working fine, and the chameleon circuit was just as broken as ever. It really was a conspiracy, it had to be. The TARDIS was working with whatever this _Bad Wolf _ was. He just didn't understand how or why.

When the Doctor answered Donna's question, her voice was quiet against the alarms, and sounded genuinely terrified, "It's the end of the universe."

The Master looked up to see she was being perfectly serious. "Bit early for that, isn't it?" he asked irreverently.

She glared at him, and he knew better than to say or do anything more to annoy her at this point. She ran to the TARDIS controls, and began setting a course. "What are you up to, down there, anyway?"

"The words on the TARDIS door." the Master said, shrugging as he quickly moved to claim the couch, so as not to suffer the worst side-effects of her inability to fly in a straight line, "I was checking the chameleon circuit was still broken and the translation system wasn't. Any other explanations for something like that?"

"Ah... maybe." she answered, distractedly.

"And that would be...?" he persisted.

"Rose." the Doctor said, before pressing the button to dematerialise.

"Very informative." the Master snarked, holding onto the back of the couch for the- much quicker than usual- jump through the Vortex. The instant they landed, the Doctor was outside again. "I'll bet you anything, this is Earth." he said to Donna, who was loyally heading towards the door, to follow the Doctor.

"I'm not taking that bet, space-man." she retorted, and then stepped outside. "'Cause you'd have won." she called back.

The Master looked to Jenny, "What do you think?"

"I think there's gonna be some running soon." she said, grinning.

"You are a strange child, you know that, don't you?"

"I'm not a child!" she replied indignantly. He heard the Doctor and Donna talking, but ignored them. "Who's Rose?" Jenny asked, after a moment.

"I'm not sure exactly." he said, shaking his head and frowning, "Beyond the fact she once travelled with the Doctor. And she did something to Captain Jack that made him unable to stay dead." As the Doctor rushed back into the TARDIS, and Donna followed, visibly annoyed at running back and forth, the Master added, "I think the Doctor loved her."

"Wrong tense." the Doctor said bluntly, pressing buttons and turning dials on the console.

"Thing is, Doctor." Donna said, "No matter what's happening, and I'm- I'm sure it's bad, I get that. But... Rose is coming back. Isn't that good?"

It took almost three seconds for the concept to sink in through the Doctor's thick skull, before she finally smiled at Donna, "Yeah."

But the sickeningly happy thoughts were thrown out the metaphorical window, when the ship shook violently, causing Jenny to yell as she was thrown into a wall. The Master was suddenly very happy with the fact he hadn't bothered to leave the couch. "What did you do, try to take off with the handbrake on?" Sure, he'd put it in Earth terms, there wasn't _actually _ a handbrake, but there were other systems vaguely comparable to it that could cause such a reaction... if the Master hadn't really known the Doctor was not the cause of the problem. For once.

"What the hell was that?" Donna demanded, clinging to the console for support.

"It came from outside." the Doctor said, before picking herself up from the floor, and running to the door. Even without leaving the couch, the Master saw the blackness of space when the door was opened.

Donna was next to the Doctor, gaping out at the view before them, "But we're in space. How did that happen? What did you do?"

Jenny was muttering irritably as she rubbed a sore shoulder and walked slowly over to the couch. The Master decided to show the greatest form of selflessness he was really capable of, and moved his legs so that Jenny could sit. Sharing. That was practically unheard of, from him. "You okay?"

She glanced at her shoulder, "Not even a scratch." she smiled brightly at him. He wasn't even sure why he cared about her. There was only one other being in all of creation whom he cared about, and she was also on this ship.

Speaking of which, the Doctor had returned to the console and was doing something with the scanners. "We haven't moved, we're still in the same place... But how? No!"

"Don't tell me you _lost _ the Earth?" the Master asked, really trying very hard not to laugh.

"Fine, I won't tell you." the Doctor hissed angrily.

"I remember a similar conversation in Pompeii." he noted brightly.

Donna glared at him, but then turned to the Doctor, showing her fear, "But if the Earth's been moved, they've lost the sun! What about my Mum? And Granddad? They're dead, aren't they? Are they dead?"

"I don't know, Donna." the Doctor said, still working on the scanners, "I just don't know, I'm sorry." she looked for a moment like she was going to hit the console, she was that upset by the situation, "I don't know."

"That's my family." Donna whispered, horrified, "My whole world." Big deal, join the club.

"There's no readings. Nothing. Not a trace." the Doctor said, "Not even a whisper. Oh, that is fearsome technology!"

"No rubble, then?" the Master asked, "That's a good sign, Donna."

"You're not helping!" Donna shrieked at him, and he actually cringed at the volume and pitch of her voice. Before he could recover, even if he had wanted to retort, she'd turned back to the Doctor, "So what do we do?"

"We've got to get help." the Doctor answered.

"From where?" Donna asked weakly.

"Donna... we're going to the Shadow Proclamation. Hold tight!"

"What about the three hundred and twelve warrants for my head, body optional?" the Master asked pointedly, even though he was too late to stop the Doctor from activating the TARDIS to travel there whether he liked it or not. The Shadow Proclamation had taken offence at most of his attempts to take over the universe, in the past.

"They don't know this face, do they?"

"Not to my knowledge." he muttered. He would need to be careful if he ever tried any evil scheme in this lifetime, so that it wouldn't affect this little field trip.

"So go on then, what is the Shadow Proclamation anyway?" Donna asked.

"Posh name for police." the Doctor answered, "Outer space police. Here we go!"

And finally they landed. That had been a much less pleasant ride than usual. As if the TARDIS didn't think this stop was at all necessary.

The Master stayed behind the three women as the Doctor negotiated with the rather large guards in charge. He didn't actually care what species they were, the point was that they were holding large weapons, and looked physically strong enough that they could probably pound the four time travellers into a fine paste with their bare hands.

It didn't take long for the Doctor to convince the guards that they were friendly, and soon they were taken to meet the Shadow Proclamation. On the way there, the Master hesitated for a half-step, before catching up with the Doctor, "Ever get the feeling of someone tap-dancing on your metaphorical grave?"

"Every time I introduce myself and someone asks 'Doctor who?'" she answered simply, "Why?"

"It's nothing, I'm sure." he said, frowning. He had felt a chill up his spine, and a strong sense of unease, as if someone, somewhere, was laughing at him. "I am sure we shouldn't be here, though."

"You're right." the Doctor said, nodding, "We should be on Earth, but this is the best way to find out what happened to it."

x x x

Unfortunately, when they were introduced to the old crone in charge, it turned out she wasn't very friendly, even towards the Doctor. And the Doctor had that knack of ingratiating him/herself to whomever they needed help from much more quickly than most other sentient beings could ever hope for.

"Time Lords are the stuff of legend." the said coldly, "They belong in the myths and whispers of the Higher Species. You cannot possibly exist."

"Yeah, more to the point, I've got a missing planet!" the Doctor said irritably.

"Then you're not as wise as the stories would say." the crone said coldly. "The picture is far bigger than you imagine. The whole universe is in outrage, Doctor. Twenty-four worlds have been taken from the sky."

"Twenty-four?" the Doctor asked, eyes widening with surprise, "Which ones? Show us!"

The Master shot her a bemused look, which easily held the question, 'Us? You think I'm going to help?' But the Doctor either didn't see it, or didn't care. She was already at the computer terminal in the centre of the room.

"Locations range far and wide. But all disappeared at the exact same moment. Leaving no trace." the crone told them. Until he got a name for her, she would be thought of as the crone. No capital letters, she wasn't important enough for them, in his opinion.

The Doctor examined the information on the computer readout, "Callufrax Minorr. Jahoo. Shallacatop. Woman Wept... Clom? Who'd want Clom?"

"All different sizes, some populated, some not. But all unconnected." the crone explained.

"What about Pyrovillia?" Donna asked, suddenly.

"And who _is _ this?" the crone asked, distaste evident in her tone and demeanour, as if she thought Donna was a mere insect not worthy of her notice, she wasn't even deigning to speak directly to Donna, but rather she directed her question to the Doctor. Bad idea, incoming rant in three, two, one...

"Donna!" she snapped indignantly. "I'm a Human Being." Yes, she pronounced the capital letters. Good for her. "Maybe not the stuff of legend but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you." The Doctor smiled encouragingly at her, obviously enjoying the sight of Donna Noble putting the old crone in her place every bit as much as the Master did. "Way back when we were in Pompeii, Lucius said Pyrovillia had gone missing."

"Pyrovillia is cold case. Not relevant!" one of the guards said. Its voice sounded like a snarl, but the Master guessed this was just its natural demeanour rather than any genuine ill-intent.

"How d'you mean, cold case?" Donna asked, confused.

"The planet Pyrovillia cannot be part of this." the crone answered, "It disappeared over two thousand years ago."

"Yes, yes, hang on." Donna continued, clearly not finished, "But there's the Adipose breeding planet too, Miss Foster said that was lost, but that must've been a long time ago."

"That's it!" the Doctor shouted, gleefully, "Donna, you're brilliant! Planets are being taken out of time as well as space!" she started doing something to the computer terminal, and then images of the planets in question were thrown up into a 3D display. "Now, if we add Pyrovillia." she said, and a representation of the planet in question appeared, "And Adipose Three." and that appeared as well. "Something missing." she began to mutter to herself, until she realised something, and all-but cheered, "Oh! The Lost Moon of Poosh!"

"Lost moon of where, now?" the Master asked.

"You were pretending to sleep during that conversation." she answered as she entered the relevant data into the computer, and another image appeared. Then the images shifted, until they were aligned with each other, forming a perfect pattern.

"What did you do?" the crone demanded, as the Doctor stepped into the middle of the projected illusion, to get a better view.

"Nothing." she answered, looking around at the illusion, "The planets rearranged themselves into the optimum pattern. Oh, look at that! Twenty-seven planets in perfect balance. Now _that _ is beautiful!"

"Alright, now tell the rest of us, what does it mean?" Donna demanded.

The Doctor left the image, and walked over to her before answering, "All those worlds fit together like pieces of an engine. It's like a powerhouse! What for?"

"Who could design such a thing?" the crone asked. The Master wandered over to the computer terminal, and began pressing buttons. The conversation was getting boring, and he had thought of something.

"Someone tried to move the Earth once before." the Doctor said quietly, "Long time ago... can't be..." the Master looked up from what he had been about to do, and stared at her for a second. He wouldn't be especially surprised if her guess was right- especially after she dared utter the words 'can't be'- but he really _really _ hoped that was not the cause of this.

Quickly, he resumed pressing buttons. "What are you doing?" the crone demanded, when she noticed him.

The information on the screen showed the basic statistics of every planet that had been taken. Size, density, natural location in its star system, life-forms, sentient populations, and energy readings. Suddenly the Doctor's attention was on him as well.

"Donna, you said the stars were going out." the Master asked, "But nothing happened to the Earth in your reality, did it?"

"Besides Sontaran poisons, vanishing hospitals, the Titanic crashing into Buckingham Palace, no, nothing. The Earth didn't up and move, or anything."

"The Titanic?" the Doctor asked her, confused.

"You... didn't know about that one?" Donna asked, surprised.

"No. No, I didn't." the Doctor said, frowning.

"What changed, Donna?" the Master asked, not taking his eyes off the computer terminal, examining the Earth's statistics in particular.

"I never met the Doctor." Donna said slowly, carefully, as if she was speaking only as she managed to dredge up the needed memories, "In that reality, he died fighting the Racnoss empress."

The Master looked right at Donna for a moment, then nodded, "This makes sense, now."

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, moving to look at the screen.

"Archangel. It's generating a psyonic empathic field. All these worlds have different global psyonic energy signatures." he pointed to the relevant planets as he read the relevant information, "Pyrovillia, psyonic thermal shielding. Not-So-Lost-Anymore-But-Nevermind Moon of Poosh, psyonic cloaking field."

He began typing in calculations, as the Doctor read out more of the statistics, "Clom, psyonic phase stabilisers. Adipose Three, psyonic growth resonance." she paused, "Why is this important?"

"Without Archangel, Earth wasn't taken." he said simply, as if the knowledge that in Donna's personal little pocket-universe he had probably died of old age as the pitiful Professor Yana really didn't bother him. Oh, it bothered him, but he refused to admit it any more than he would admit that the thought of the Doctor's final death had hurt him. "I don't know _why _ it's important, but it must mean something."

x x x

Twenty minutes had passed. Donna was now sitting near the bottom of a staircase, watching the Doctor and the crone working on the computer terminal. Jenny and the Master were on the floor by the far wall. Jenny was leaning against the wall, with her eyes closed, and was frowning in concentration, "I still can't see anything that looks like it." she said quietly.

The Master was laying on the floor a few feet from her, flat on his back, subconsciously doing his best to impersonate a sleeping vampire, "It's not easy when you're just learning." he said quietly. "Furthest I could ever sense, when I trained at the Academy, was Veridian. That was only half a constellation away. But try to relax, it'll work better."

Only half his mind was on this conversation. He was listening intently to the drumbeat in his head. They were quiet, he had to go looking for them. The beat was faster than average, usually meaning something violent was happening somewhere important. When they got louder, it meant he should join in.

He had instructed Jenny to try to use natural Time Lord temporal perception to try to find the planets shown on the projection. Meanwhile, he was trying something much more crude and dangerous. If you compared it to a particular series of Earth movies for one minute, Jenny was using the Light Side, and he was tapping into the Dark Side, both with the same goal of tracing a disturbance in the Force.

The drums got quieter, when he thought of the Sol system, or any location the other planets had been taken from. So he began a systematic mental sweep of the local galaxies. Sometimes the volume would increase, but not enough to trace. It wasn't working. Maybe what he was sensing wasn't even related to the Earth's disappearance at all? Oh, he was so sick of playing hide-and-seek. Cowardly sneak-thief, come out and play my game instead!

For a brief instant, too brief to pinpoint, he heard the drums tapping in an unfamiliar metallic tone, very quickly, only once, not repeated. Taunting him. Before he could try to focus on it again, his concentration was interrupted by the Doctor's voice, "The bees disappearing!"

He opened one eye to glare at the Doctor, "And that is important enough to disrupt _our _ concentration, why?"

"You were trying to search telepathically?" she asked, surprised, "Thought you were just pretending to sleep again." She was at the computer, now, with Donna lurking over her shoulder in spite of the fact the human had no idea what the Doctor was up to. Neither did the Master, for that matter.

"How is this significant?" the crone asked.

"Answer my question first!" the Master demanded, grinning. He enjoyed messing with people's minds, and it was so much more fun when he didn't need to hypnotise them to do so. He'd asked pretty much the same question as the crone had, so that was why he considered this remark funny. No one else seemed to agree.

Donna pointedly turned to the crone as she began to speak, "On Earth we have these insects. Some people said it was pollution, or mobile phone signals."

"Or..." the Doctor interrupted, too happily, "They were going back home!"

"Back home where?" Donna asked, confused.

"Planet Melissa Majoria!" the Doctor answered.

"Are you saying bees are aliens?" Donna demanded, incredulously.

"Well... not all of them." the Doctor said with a shrug, "But if the migrant bees felt something coming, some sort of danger, and escaped... Tandocca!"

Now the Master sat up and took notice, at about the same instant that the crone figured it out as well, "The Tandocca Scale!" the crone declared.

At Donna's blank look, the Doctor decided to explain, "Tandocca Scale is the series of wavelengths used as a carrier signals by migrant bees. Infinitely small, no wonder we didn't see it! Like looking for a speck of cinnamon in the Sahara, but look! There it is. The Tandocca trail. The transmat that moved the planets was using the same wavelength, we can follow the path!"

"And find the Earth?" Donna asked, brightening up significantly, "Well, stop talking and do it!"

"You can stop, now, Jenny." the Master muttered, only slightly sulking, "Science wins over both good and evil." he looked right at the Doctor, and added, "But I came damned close."

The Doctor and Donna were already running towards the TARDIS, and Jenny all too happily scrambled to her feet and sprinted after them. The Master stood in a much more dignified manner, but using one the Time Lords' many natural advantages over lesser beings, he was able to catch up with the others by the time they reached the TARDIS, and actually beat the Doctor inside.

"Cheater!" she laughed as she ran for the controls and began setting the scanners to the correct frequency. "Took us long enough to figure this out. The signal's scattered. But not too bad."

The Master sat down, and waited impatiently for them to leave. Jenny sat next to him, grinning. "You." he said to her, "Are absolutely loving this, aren't you?"

"Shouldn't I?" Jenny asked, confused by the very idea.

"The resemblance is uncanny." he said, glancing at the Doctor, who ignored him completely.

The Doctor went back to the door, and spoke too-quickly to whoever was out there, "I've got a blip! It's just a blip! But it's definitely there!"

"Then according to the Strictures of the Shadow Proclamation, I will have to seize your transport and your technology." that was the crone's voice.

"This is where we tell her just where she can shove her strictures." the Master said quietly, so only Donna and Jenny could hear.

"Oi, you! No corrupting the younger generation!" Donna sniped playfully. Jenny giggled at this.

"What did he do?" the Doctor asked. He hadn't seen her return from the door, but she was already at the control console once more, and preparing for takeoff.

"How'd you get rid of that lot?" the Master asked, as the TARDIS dematerialised, instead of answering her question.

"Told them I'd comply, just needed to fetch something first." the Doctor answered.

"And that something would be... the Earth?" the Master suggested.

"Of course."

x x x

**Author's Note**: For reference, seeing as it was pretty damned obscure, when the Master felt the sensation he described as "tap-dancing on your metaphorical grave" the entire Dalek fleet had been chanting at that exact moment, "Daleks are the Masters of Earth!" And when he heard the metallic tone of the drumbeat, Davros had tapped it with his metal hand, I definitely heard it last time I watched the episode.


	26. Rose Tyler

x x x

**Chapter 26: Rose Tyler**

x x x

Rose Tyler stepped through the fracture between universes. They were getting easier to navigate all the time. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Was she learning, or was the damage that caused these cracks in reality getting worse? Did it matter? Either way, when this was over she would never step through these pathways again. Either she finds the Doctor, or everyone dies. Simple as that.

She looked up at the sky to see twenty-six planets overhead. It _was _ a beautiful sight, but they were far too close for comfort, really. "Right, now we're in trouble." Wouldn't the Doctor be saying something about gravity or proximity or something like that, about now? Yes, she figured he would.

She checked her favourite weapon was ready for action. She'd acquired it from her world's Torchwood, and it could theoretically take down most of the weaker varieties of spaceship, if your aim was good enough. Apparently everyone at Torchwood had just referred to it as the Very Big Gun, until the individual working on it had gotten sick of writing that out in full on reports, so it had become known as the VBG. The really important thing about it, though, was that it would kill pretty much anything that could possibly threaten her.

On the bright side, she wasn't too late, yet. Just on time, in fact. "It's only just beginning." she whispered to herself. Her interdimensional transporter had picked up the movement here, and sent her to less than a minute after the Earth had moved. Wouldn't she have preferred to get there before that event, and tell Captain Jack about it in _those _ words?

No time for that sort of thought right now. She quickly walked down the street, heading for Chiswick. Donna Noble was the latest companion of the Doctor, if she could find Donna's family, then hopefully she could trace the Doctor.

As she walked, she noticed an odd feeling that hadn't been present on any of the other Earths she had been to. She didn't know what it was, more like a creeping feeling of unease that had nothing to do with the impending doom she was here to deal with. She chose to ignore it for now, and focus on the more immediate danger.

It was a long enough walk, and she idly wondered just how much worse the universal barriers would have got if she'd brought a bike or moped or _something _ with her for quicker transportation. She was sure the damage would have been worth it, but she didn't let that thought bother her too much.

She was about halfway to her goal when the looting and pillaging started. These people must have watched way too many post-apocalyptic movies, and clearly couldn't wait long enough to see if they survived the apocalypse itself before wreaking havoc. That one there, hanging out the sunroof of the car, clearly liked Mad Max a little too much. It was actually kind of sad. Pathetic, in a way, too. So much for humanity uniting against a common foe, they'd rather steal each other's property than cooperate.

"The end of the world, darlin'! End of the stinkin' world!"

Rose turned to face the drunken man who had declared this. She got the feeling he was probably one of the type that stood around on street corners all day with a sign saying 'the end is nigh', probably misspelled or with a backwards letter or two. Sad, really. He must be so happy to be proved right. She didn't feel like arguing, it wouldn't be the end of the world if she could help it. So instead, she smiled weakly at him, and answered, "Have one on me, mate."

'_Yes, give yourself alcohol poisoning before the space-monsters get you._' Now that was a big cruel, but if no one would pretend to want to fight for the world, why should she pretend to approve of their behaviour?

'_And what do people plan to do with computers once their new evil overlords disrupt power supplies, anyway?_' She wondered, as she stepped into the doorway of an electronics store. She was here to try to access a computer, not take one. News equals important, at this point. She had yet to learn what was causing the problem.

But there were two men already in the store, helping themselves to as much technology as possible. Already obsolete technology, it must have been sitting in the shop all day, so it had to be outdated by now. She wanted to be alone to get the information she needed, so these men had to leave.

"Right, you two!" she called, drawing their full attention, "You can put that stuff down, or run for your lives." and she made an unnecessarily dramatic show of cocking the VBG she held, and smiled at them as she asked, "D'you like my gun?"

They exchanged a terrified look, and fled without any argument. Good riddance. She found a computer that was already on, and quickly brought up a news website which showed the planets overhead. And a fleet of flying saucers on approach vector.

"And we are now receiving a transmission from the alien spaceships." the news reporter said.

As it was, the message was far worse for Rose, "_**Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!**_"

Just what she'd not wanted to hear. Daleks. But that didn't scare her. She'd encountered them before, twice more than she'd have liked. She knew well enough what they were capable of, and how to fight them.

And obviously the idiot newscasters had put the signal through without checking it for content first. No one in their right mind would transmit _that _ to the impressionable and already loot-happy people. What if the aliens had been swearing? Then there'd have been even more outrage from the normal public!

She stood quickly, re-adjusting her VBG, to make sure it was comfortable, before walking out of the shop. She heard the whirring overhead, and looked up to see a Dalek ship looming ominously over the street. It might have been impressive, if she hadn't seen it all before and obliterated a fleet of them with a thought, once in the distant future.

She turned and walked down the street, towards Chiswick, not looking back for the screams or the explosions she heard. Don't look back. You don't want to see the destruction, when you can't stop it yet. Never look back.

x x x

Rose heard the explosion from two streets away, and started walking a bit faster. She saw the flames rising from an ordinary house, and heard Dalek voices, though at this distance she couldn't tell what they were saying yet.

But then she saw another Dalek emerge from a nearby street, and ducked behind a wall to avoid it. She held the VBG ready, and peered around the wall to see the Dalek.

"_**Halt! You will come with me.**_" it declared. But it wasn't facing her. It was facing a pair of humans she recognised from other Earths she had visited. Wilfred Mott, and his daughter Sylvia Noble. These were the people she was looking for, and this offensive tin can was trying to take them away. Oh no, I don't think so.

"Will I, heck!" Wilfred snapped, raising a paint-gun and shooting the Dalek. Excellent aim, right on the eye stalk. She smiled at that. Very clever.

Unfortunately, Daleks had experience with people using that tactic in their relative past. She had been told this by the Doctor, once. She knew the Dalek would not be happy about being shot at, so she decided to even the odds. Glancing quickly around to ensure there weren't more of them, she stepped out so she was right behind the creature. Foolish of them to only have one eye, really, even if they could prevent paintball-related issues, they still couldn't see behind them.

She heard a hissing sound that indicated the paint was dissolving, "_**My vision is **_** not **_** impaired.**_" the Dalek declared. If she didn't know better, she'd swear it sounded smug about this.

"I warned you, Dad!" Sylvia snapped.

"_**Hostility will not be tolerated! Exterminate! Exterminate!**_" Oh, shut up! She fired the VBG at the Dalek, and caught it mid-word, "_**Exter-**_" _BOOM! _ Dead Dalek. So satisfying, but somehow she failed to smile at it. She remembered the lone Dalek she had met, that first time. When she'd thought it was the very last one. She had actually pitied it.

Slowly, she walked forward, towards the two people she had saved. "D'you wanna swap?" Wilfred asked her, holding up his paint gun. Funny, but still she couldn't bring herself to smile.

More important things to do. "You're Donna Noble's family, right?" she asked. Safer to double-check these things, even if she recognised their faces easily enough. Wilfred nodded, "I'm Rose Tyler, and I need you."

"What on Earth for?" Sylvia demanded.

"That's the problem." Rose answered, "It's not on Earth." she looked straight to Wilfred, knowing from other versions of the Earth that he was more open-minded to the concept of space-travel. Actually, obsessed with aliens would be a more fitting description, "I need to find the Doctor."

Wilfred nodded eagerly, "Right, yes. Come on, then." and he led her down the street, the way the two had been trying to go before the Dalek had interrupted them.

It wasn't far, and soon she found herself in a very nice house. It felt cosy, and she liked it, "Wait one minute, I'll call Donna." Wilfred said quickly taking out a mobile phone.

"I'll make some tea." Sylvia said. Her tone of voice reminded Rose of her own mum whenever the Doctor showed up. Infinitely put out by the unwanted guest, but determinedly polite as if to spite said guest by that fact. She smiled weakly at the comparison, but it didn't last.

"That'd be great, thanks." Rose said to her.

About a minute later, Wilfred returned, holding his mobile phone, and not looking at all pleased with the piece of technology in question. "I've tried calling her, but I can't get through!" he said, irritably, "But she's still with the Doctor, I know that much. And the last time she phoned, it- it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds!"

Rose felt very lost, all of a sudden. She'd come here with a coherent plan. Find Donna, phone Donna, get Donna to bring the Doctor here, save the multiverse. Simple, easy to follow, step-by-step guide to averting the apocalypse. But what could she do now? No Donna, no Doctor, no one to save them.

"What the hell are you two on about?" Sylvia demanded, as she brought two mugs of tea over to them.

"Look, she's out there, sweetheart." Wilfred said, becoming even more exasperated by the moment, "Your daughter. She's travelling the stars, with that Doctor, she always has been!"

"Don't be ridiculous." Sylvia said, with a snort. Rose stared at her balefully. She didn't believe in what was right in front of her? Spaceships and other planets in the sky, and she couldn't accept the idea that Donna had already been out there before now?

"Oh come on, open your eyes!" Wilfred demanded, "Look at the sky! Look at- look at the Daleks! You can't start denying things now!"

Rose sighed, blinking back the tears before speaking, "You're my last hope." she said distantly. Both of them had turned to look at her, "If we can't find Donna, can't find the Doctor. Where is he?" What do I do now?

"He?" Wilfred asked, suddenly confused.

"That man who showed up at the wedding!" Sylvia snapped, "Caused all sorts of trouble. Of course, you were laid up with the flu at the time."

"I distinctly remember that woman the Donna brought here during that whole debacle with the cars and Sontarans called herself the Doctor." Wilfred said indignantly.

Rose raised an eyebrow at this, but couldn't force the smile such a debate might normally easily inspire in her. She didn't dare think that Wilfred could be right. Obviously the old man wasn't as fully coherent as she'd previously assumed.

The debate continued, each bringing up perfectly logical-sounding reasons why they were right and the other was wrong. Whether it was about aliens, the Dalek invasion, or the Doctor himself. It was one of those epic arguments that could probably last a lifetime. Too bad that was going to make it a very short argument.

Almost ten minutes of this passed, during which Rose simply sat there wondering where the Doctor was, and how to find him without Donna's help, and the computer on the table was playing that news channel Rose had found in the shop earlier. She heard the words, but didn't process them. The Earth had surrendered, the Daleks had won. That was all that seemed to get through to her mind.

"**_The Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks. You will obey Dalek instructions without question. You will obey your Dalek ma-_**"

But then she heard a beeping, a pointed interruption that somehow felt purposefully timed. It was a four-beat rhythm that sounded strangely familiar, even though she'd never heard it before in her life, and it drew her attention with an almost physically painful jolt, as she felt a sense of creeping unease at the very sound. But the negative feeling dissipated in an instant, turning very quickly into hope. Wilfred and Sylvia had stopped arguing at the sound, turning to look at the computer instead.

A familiar voice was calling out from the computer, "Can anyone hear me?" Harriet Jones? "The Subwave Network is open. You should be able to hear my voice. Is there anyone there?"

"I know that voice." Rose said, as she approached the computer.

"Can anyone hear me?" Harriet repeated. Her image was on the screen, but so fuzzy it was barely discernable, like one of those magic eye pictures all in white and pale grey. "This message is of the utmost importance. We haven't much time... Can anyone hear me?"

"That's Harriet Jones." Rose said. While she didn't smile, she felt hope again. At least it was something.

A brief pause as the three of them stared at the screen, trying to make out the image. Then it wavered and came into full colour as Harriet snapped, "Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you! Now stand to attention, sir!"

"Jack?" Rose asked, surprised, and finally breaking into a smile.

Another pause, as the image finally resolved itself into a clear picture, and Harriet held up her ID card, "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister." she declared.

"Harriet!" Rose shouted at the screen, "It's me, it's me. Oh, she can't hear me... have you got a webcam?" she asked frowning and looking around. Even a microphone would be enough, really. She didn't see anything of the sort.

"No, she wouldn't let me, she said they're naughty." Wilfred said defensively, passing the blame onto his daughter.

"I can't speak to her then, can I?" Rose said, her eagerness deflating significantly.

"Sarah Jane Smith, thirteen Bannerman Road." Harriet continued, "Are you there?" Another pause. "Good. Now, let's see if we can talk to each other." She worked on her own computer, and a few seconds later the screen split into four. Harriet's image shrank to the top-left corner of the screen. Jack Harkness appeared in the top-right, and Sarah Jane's eager smiling face appeared, with a teenage boy sitting next to her, in the bottom left corner of the screen. The bottom right was just white-noise, "The fourth contact seems to be having some trouble getting through."

"That's me! Harriet! That's me!" Rose shouted desperately.

"I'll just boost the signal." Harriet continued, pressing more buttons.

Another face appeared in that bottom right corner, unfamiliar to Rose. A pretty dark-skinned young woman, "Hello?" she asked.

"Martha Jones!" Jack greeted her, laughing. One of those half-hysterical laughs you only hear when the person thought someone was dead (or worse) but then finds out they were an idiot for thinking that. She'd done that before, so she knew what it meant.

"Who's she?" Rose asked, scowling, "I want to get through!"

"Martha, where are you?" Jack asked happily.

"I guess Project Indigo was more clever than we thought." Martha answered, "One second I was in Manhattan, next second- maybe Indigo tapped into my mind. Cos I ended up in the one place that I wanted to be."

An older woman, probably Martha's mum, Rose guessed, appeared next to Martha on that screen, "You came home. At the end of the world, you came back to me."

Martha smiled at her, but then turned back to the rest of them, "But then all of a sudden, it's like the laptop turned itself on."

"It did. That was me." Harriet said, once again showing her ID badge, "Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister."

"Yes, I know who you are." Martha said with a nod.

"I thought it was about time we all met. Given the current crisis." Harriet continued, "Torchwood, this is Sarah Jane Smith."

"I've been following your work." Jack said, with a nod, "Nice job with the Slitheen."

"More Slitheen?" Rose asked, surprised, even if no one who heard her knew what the Slitheen actually were.

"Yeah, well I've been staying away from you lot. Too many guns!" Sarah Jane retorted, her eyes darting towards the teenager next to her, as if to suggest that knowing how to shoot something that's trying to kill you is a bad influence on a child. Self-defence. Wouldn't catch Rose out on that street without her Very Big Gun.

"All the same." Jack said, shrugging off the rebuke easily, "Might I say, looking good, Ma'am." Typical Jack.

"Really?" Sarah Jane asked, blushing, "Oh."

"Not now, Captain." Harriet interrupted, before continuing the introductions, "And Martha Jones, former companion to the Doctor."

"Oi! So was I!" Rose complained, mentally cursing whatever twist of logic led Sylvia Noble to the conclusion that webcams could possibly be used for anything 'naughty'. Then again, Jack was on the other end of this communication, so Sylvia might have a point there.

"But how did you find me?" Martha asked, clearly confused.

Harriet suddenly looked very proud of herself, "This, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Subwave Network. A sentient piece of software, programmed to seek out anyone and everyone who can help to contact the Doctor."

"What if the Daleks can hear us?" Martha asked. Good question, too.

"No, that's the beauty of the Subwave, it's undetectable." Harriet said confidently.

"And you invented it?" Sarah Jane asked, obviously impressed by this piece of technology.

"I developed it." Harriet answered, "It was created by the Mr Copper Foundation."

"Yeah, but what we need right now is a weapon." Jack pointed out. "Martha, back there at UNIT, what- what did they give you, what was that key thing?"

Very slowly, now wearing a cold expression of distaste for what they were talking about, Martha held up a square bit of plastic with circuits inside, and answered his question, "The Osterhagen Key." her voice matched her eyes, showing great dislike for this innocuous bit of plastic. Had to be a bad thing, this... key.

"That key is not to be used, Doctor Jones. Not under any circumstances!" Harriet said, very sternly. Yep, bad thing.

"But what _is _ an Osterhagen Key?" Jack persisted.

"Oh, drop it, Jack!" Rose whined. Get to the finding of the Doctor, already!

"Sounds German, to me." Wilfred pointed out. Yeah, it did at that. Rose nodded in agreement. But who really cares?

"Forget about the key and that's an order!" Harriet demanded, "All we need is the Doctor."

"Too right!" Rose muttered, in agreement.

"Oh excuse me, Harriet, but, well the thing is, if you're looking for the Doctor... didn't he depose you?" Sarah Jane put in.

"_'He'_, you see, I told you so." Sylvia pointed out, a bit too happy about this trivial point when it was overshadowed by the bigger problem of the Doctor's absence.

"He did." Harriet agreed, "And I've wondered about that for a long time. Whether I was wrong, but I stand by my actions, to this day. Because I knew, I knew that one day, the Earth would be in danger, and the Doctor would fail to appear. I told him so myself. And he didn't listen."

"But I've been trying to find the Doctor." Martha pointed out, "My phone is on the TARDIS, but I can't get through."

"Nor me, and I was here first!" Rose muttered irritably.

"That's why we need the Subwave." Harriet agreed, "To bring us all together, combine forces. The Doctor's secret army." Ok, we've got our morale speech, now where's the plan?

"Wait a minute." Jack said, thinking for one second more before, declaring his genius- if incredibly simple- idea, "We boost the signal! That's it! We transmit that telephone number through Torchwood itself, using all the power of the Rift-"

But the kid with Sarah Jane interrupted, "And we've got Mr Smith! He can link up with every telephone exchange on the Earth. He can get the whole world to call the same number, all at the same time! Billions of phones, calling out, all at once!"

"You like busy-signals that much?" Rose muttered, but she knew it didn't work quite that way. They only needed one to get through, anyway, right?

"Haha, brilliant!" Jack cheered, "Who's the kid?"

"That's my son!" Sarah Jane answered proudly.

But before anything more could be planned, another man appeared on Torchwood's corner of the screen, stepping in front of Jack, "Excuse me." he said, very seriously, with one of those quiet voices that usually means he's the one in the office to be voted most likely to burn the place down, "Hello, Ianto Jones. Um, if we start transmitting, then this Subwave Network is going to become visible. I mean... to the Daleks."

"Yes." Harriet agreed, solemnly, "And they'll trace it back to me. But my life doesn't matter. Not if it saves the Earth."

Rose scowled. She hated it when people said that. Even if she'd said- or at least thought- it countless times before, herself. Jack, meanwhile, saluted Harriet, to show his respect for her sacrifice "Ma'am." Rose would have tried to talk the woman out of it, there must be another way, but she couldn't speak to any of them, and time was of the essence now anyway.

"Thank you, Captain." Harriet said, sadly, "But there are people out there dying, on the streets."

"Marvellous woman. I voted for her." Wilfred noted.

"You did not." Sylvia retorted. Rose was paying too much attention to the screen to comment on this, though.

"Now enough of words. Let's begin!" Harriet said determinedly. Everyone else started _doing stuff_. Rose sat and watched, there was nothing else she could do. She hated this, sitting here helplessly. It was so wrong. Where's a big yellow truck when you need it?

She heard the running commentary on the progress of The Plan. It included unfamiliar voices, from Torchwood and Sarah-Jane's home, but she didn't really listen to the words so much as the tone. Hopeful, eager even. Travelling with the Doctor, she'd had to learn to tell when something was going well- or badly- from the tone of voice more than the words, cause she could never understand half the words he used anyway.

Martha's voice broke through Rose's helpless trance, "Sending you the number... now!" and a mobile phone number appeared on the screen.

Rose typed the number into her own phone, as Harriet said something else, and then she heard Sarah Jane give the order, "Mr Smith... make that call!"

She heard a voice- likely this Mr Smith- declare, "Calling the Doctor." Which means The Plan was all set up and ready to go.

"And so am I." she said determinedly, as she pressed the call button herself. Wilfred and Sylvia were dialling the number too, on their own phones, now. As the phone dialled out, she held it up and whispered, "Find me, Doctor. Find me."

She distantly heard a female voice from the computer warning, "Harriet! A saucer's locked on to your location, they've found you."

"I know." Harriet replied, sounding far calmer than she should, "I'm using the Network to mask your transmission. Keep going!" A few more seconds passed, and then she added, "Captain, I'm transferring the Subwave Network to Torchwood. You're in charge now. And tell the Doctor from me... he chose his companions well. It's been an honour."

Rose turned to look at the screen, and in the top left corner, she saw Harriet stand to face three Daleks that had invaded her home. It seemed like the rest of the world froze and became irrelevant, as she watched this scene unfold, helpless to do anything about it.

"Harriet Jones. Former Prime Minister." the woman identified herself for the Daleks, showing her ID card for the last time.

"Yes, we know who you are." one of the Daleks answered.

"Oh, you know nothing of any human." Harriet replied coldly, "And that will be your downfall."

"Exterminate!" the Daleks yelled, and Rose was eternally- and quite selfishly- grateful that the computer got blasted before Harriet was exterminated. She wasn't sure she could stand to watch that happen, to be honest.

But then, almost a minute of deathly silence later, another image came through in Harriet's place. It looked like the inside of the TARDIS, and Rose's heart leapt at the sight, but she didn't recognise the woman there. "Where the hell have you been?" Jack demanded, "Doctor, it's the Daleks!"

"It's the Daleks." Sarah Jane had said at almost the exact same time as Jack, "They're taking people to their spaceship."

"There's a whole fleet of them, it's not just Dalek Caan!" Martha put in, talking over Sarah Jane.

"I told you she's a she." Wilfred put in, unhelpfully. Rose frowned. Jack had addressed that woman as if she really had been the Doctor.

"That's Donna!" Sylvia added, pointing at the red-head behind the woman that Jack seemed to think was the Doctor. Yes, that was Donna alright, Rose _did _ recognise her.

"That's my girl!" Wilfred cheered.

The woman seemed to be scanning the other faces on her screen, and then asked, "Sarah Jane! Who's that boy?" but without waiting for an answer, she continued, "That must be Torchwood. Aren't they brilliant? You sent that signal, didn't you?"

"That's Martha." Donna added, "And who's-" she pointed to what must have been the top-right of their screen, "-he?"

"That-" another voice said, as a man appeared on the screen, leaning over Donna's shoulder, "-is Captain Jack Harkness. You're breathing, therefore yes you are his type. Hello Captain." he was grinning. Almost evilly if Rose really thought about it.

"Oh, let me guess." Jack said, folding his arms and leaning back from the screen just a bit, a defensive gesture she'd never expected to see on that man, "The Master?"

"The one and only." the man said brightly. The Master? Rose had never heard of him. Martha was scowling in dislike, now, but not at all surprised. Sarah Jane made a slight squeaking noise, and automatically stepped defensively between the screen and her son.

"Relax, Sarah Jane, he's been properly house-trained." the woman- the Doctor? But she couldn't be!- said brightly. Sarah Jane laughed nervously, while Martha grinned in an almost sadistic sort of way.

This Master guy clearly hadn't made many friends with this lot. "I hate you." he muttered, glaring at the Doctor, before disappearing from the screen, sulkily.

"Is Captain Jack right? You- you can't be the Doctor?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Very long story." was the answer she got, "But yes. Last time we met, K9 blew up a school. Believe me yet?"

"I hate K9, as well!" the Master declared loudly, from off-screen.

"I can guess why." Sarah Jane sniped, but then nodded, "Yes, Doctor. I believe you." And so did Rose.

"Doctor, it's me. I came back." she whispered. She didn't like this new face- not that it wasn't a nice face, just the idea of the Doctor changing had always upset her- but she believed that this really was the Doctor. Just not _her _ Doctor anymore. She never knew regeneration could do _that_, though.

"It's like an outer space Facebook." Donna pointed out.

"Facebook is evil." the Master's voice pointed out, but he didn't elaborate on why.

"Takes one to know one!" Jack retorted, causing Martha and Sarah-Jane to smile. The Doctor and Donna didn't see the funny side, though. Or maybe the Doctor did, but she kept her amusement restricted to her eyes. When Rose looked at those eyes, she did think they looked a lot like her Doctor's eyes, same colour and everything, but she didn't dare think too much on that, or it would hurt.

"But, I mean, that's- that's everyone, right?" Donna asked, curiously.

"Everyone except Rose." the Doctor said quietly.

Rose scowled, and looked away from the screen. She was very happy that the Doctor had remembered her, but somehow it made her feel worse that she was watching this and couldn't tell the Doctor she was right here.

x x x


	27. Davros Lives

x x x

**Chapter 27: Davros Lives**

x x x

The images on the screen faded, "We've lost them!" Donna cried.

"No, no, no, no, there's another signal coming through, there's someone else out there." the Doctor said, first fiddling with the controls for the monitor, then giving up on that and hitting it instead, "Hello? Can you hear me? Rose?"

"Very optimistic." the Master noted, approaching the screen as well. He knew better than to touch anything, it was all part of the TARDIS' control console, but he was curious as to what was happening, none the less. "Wouldn't a friendly communication just join the group-chat instead of overriding it?"

"Your voice is different. And yet, its arrogance is unchanged." a terrifyingly familiar voice declared, from the screen.

The Doctor froze, staring at the screen in horror. The Master tilted his head to one side, also shocked by this development, but he regained his composure faster than she did, "Davros." he growled, "I know this line is ridiculously overused, but why can't you just stay dead?" That snapped the Doctor out of her horrified trance, and she smiled faintly at the Master's choice of words, backing away from the screen just one step, and to one side where she wouldn't be seen if visual communication was restored.

Almost as soon as she did so, the image resolved itself, and Davros appeared. Just as hideous as ever. And he was laughing as if the Master had been joking with that question. "Welcome to my new Empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection, and the triumph, of Davros. Lord and creator of the Dalek Race!"

The Master opened his mouth to correct Davros' ludicrous assumption on his identity, but a telepathic nudge from the Doctor told him to play along. "Bit early for a victory celebration, isn't it?" he asked, instead. He guessed Davros could at least see the physical world, and was able to perceive the fact of a man answering the TARDIS' communications and jump to the wrong conclusion. But this was proof positive that Davros had no extra-sensory perception whatsoever, and that his single functional eye didn't work well enough to see the mania behind the Master's own eyes, or he would never have made that mistake.

"Nothing can stop me, now. Not even you, Doctor!" Davros declared. Famous last words. He knew this from experience.

"And you still haven't answered my question." the Master pointed out, "Maybe I should rephrase it. How did you survive the War?"

"One could ask the same of you, Doctor."

'_Oh, by the infernal abyss, stop calling me that!_'

"But I shall tell you, now. It was Dalek Caan himself."

And another voice, truly demented by the sound of it, sang from somewhere behind Davros, "I flew into the wild and fire, I danced and died a thousand times." The source of the voice wasn't visible.

"Emergency Temporal Shift took him back into the Time War itself." Davros explained.

'_Yes, I didn't need a translation for the insane gibbering, I'm unhinged enough myself to get what it meant._' "How is that possible?" he asked. Then again, if the demented Dalek 'died a thousand times', maybe they should just go and throw Jack Harkness overboard in the sector of space that used to be Kasterberous.

"How it was achieved is forever locked in Dalek Caan's shattered mind." Davros answered, "But imagine, a single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?"

"A testament to sheer dumb luck, more likely." the Master retorted, "So where did this fleet come from? Did Dalek Caan bring _all _ of them out of the War?"

"No, Doctor. Only my command ship escaped the War. I created this fleet here. I gave myself to them." as he spoke, Davros began to unfasten the tunic he wore, "Quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body." and he pulled back the tunic to reveal that half his chest was stripped away, leaving ribs and his heart exposed. Disgusting. Really, totally repulsive, as if his face wasn't bad enough. "New Daleks. True Daleks. I have my children, Doctor. What do you have, now?"

'_Call me that one more time, I'll kill you myself, with or without the Doctor's permission!_' the Master thought irritably, but he was too busy being disgusted by the idea of this self-mutilation- why mutliate yourself when you can encourage others to do so instead?- to actually show his anger.

"See, there's your problem, Davros. For all your swarms of pets, you don't even consider the concept of-" he deliberately hesitated, looking off to the side where, unknown to Davros, the Doctor stood watching him with a calculating look in her eyes.

She knew what he'd been about to say- friendship, trust, the idea of the word love even crossed his mind though he didn't believe in it, the Doctor had all of these and in that sense Davros really was the one with nothing here- but he really didn't think Davros deserved to know that.

"Oh, look at the time, I've got a party to get to." he grinned, and the Doctor recognised what he was getting at, putting her hand on the lever to fly the TARDIS, and her other hand hovering over the off button for the communications terminal. "Bye-bye!" he cheered too brightly, waving at the screen, and the Doctor hit the button and sent them hurtling down to Earth.

"I think I'm actually proud of you." the Doctor said, grinning at the Master as she guided the TARDIS down towards the Earth.

He returned it with a glare, as he landed quite deliberately on the couch, to avoid the worst side-effects of the Doctor's driving skills. "Don't patronise me. Besides, if we're playing the decoy card, I have plenty more to tell Davros that you probably won't like so much."

"Decoy card?" Donna asked, confused, and clinging to the control console.

"You know." Jenny said, as if it was obvious, "The main person doing the negotiating isn't really the leader, gives leeway in case of assassination attempts, confuses the enemy, gives you an advantage in general. Decoy."

"Like Queen Amidala and her handmaidens." the Doctor added.

"I preferred Jenny's description." the Master grumbled, and Donna laughed at that remark. "It is not that funny, human." he growled at her.

As soon as they landed, the Master stood, stepping right in front of the Doctor, "I want a weapon." he demanded, holding out his hand, fully expecting her to comply with this request.

"What for?" she asked, frowning.

"Daleks. It also wouldn't be a bad idea for you to give me permission to kill Daleks, but honestly, I'll kill them anyway."

She nodded, not seeming at all surprised by that statement, and reached into a pocket. He didn't see what she gave him, until it was already in his hand. He looked down at his laser screwdriver, and then looked back up at her with amazement, "You're allowed to kill Daleks." she said, smiling at his reaction.

"You actually kept this?" he asked, stunned.

"For emergencies." she answered, "This would seem to count, don't you think?"

x x x

The four of them stepped out of the TARDIS onto a deserted street, right in front of a church that echoed slightly in a way the rest of the street didn't. The street had obviously been attacked by Dalek weapons, judging by the blast-patterns and rubble, and there were abandoned cars lying in the middle of the road. It was a mess.

The Master got the feeling that if he'd been the cause of this he'd be quite proud of himself, but as it was he just wished the Daleks knew the concept of cleaning up after themselves when they make a mess like this.

"Bit like Messaline, except with sky." Jenny muttered, looking around edgily.

The Master looked up at the planets in the sky when she said this, "It may be part of a Dalek plot, but the sky does look better like this." he pointed out. Jenny smiled weakly, but it didn't last. The war-zone feel in the air couldn't possibly allow the born soldier to let her guard down.

"Where is everyone?" Donna asked, "It's like a ghost town."

"If they're intelligent, they stayed inside, so... they're probably all dead." the Master said unhelpfully.

"Sarah Jane said they were taking the people." the Doctor said, only sparing the briefest glare for the Master, "What for?" she considered it for only a second, before turning to face Donna directly, "Donna, think, when you met Rose in that parallel world, what did she say?"

"Just... the darkness is coming." Donna said, shaking her head, as if unsure even of that much.

The Master looked right at the back of Donna's head, now. Those words were familiar to him, and the Doctor had idly suggested Rose's return heralded the end of the universe, as well.

"Anything else?" the Doctor asked. The hope in her voice was weak, as if she didn't think Donna could answer any more, but she felt she had to at least ask, anyway.

Donna didn't answer, for a second. At first, the Master thought she was just thinking about it, but then she spoke with a half-amused tone, "Why don't you ask her yourself?" Half a second after Donna said this, he saw understanding flash through the Doctor's eyes and she turned around to look behind her.

At the far end of the street, carrying a very big gun, was a woman with shoulder-length blonde hair and a dark blue jacket. At this distance, there wasn't much more he could see of her, but she stood with a confident bearing that could be mistaken for military if he hadn't known enough military types to know better.

After an interminable second, the Doctor ran towards her, and Rose- for it really couldn't be anyone else- started running as well. "And this is what I meant when I used the phrase 'Disney Moment'." the Master grumbled, looking away from the scene. Jenny didn't look away, however, and was grinning at the sight. She clearly saw it as a good thing. Maybe it was good that Rose was back, he didn't really know, but he felt he might be sick if he had to watch this reunion.

But then he saw Jenny's face turn from happy to soldier-mode in an instant, "Look out!"

He turned around, drawing the laser screwdriver like the weapon it had always really been as he did so, but he was too late, as a Dalek voice screeched through the street. "_**Exterminate!**_"

Both the Master and the Dalek fired at the same time. The Doctor had heard the Dalek- though she was probably too far away to hear Jenny- and had half-turned to face it when she was struck by its beam weapon. At the same instant, the Dalek exploded from the Master's shot.

Half a second later, Jack Harkness appeared out of thin air. Also holding an unnecessarily large gun ready, as if expecting a fight. But when he saw that the only Dalek in the area was a smoking wreck he lowered the weapon and turned instead to the Doctor.

Rose was closest, and reached the Doctor before anyone else. She was speaking her, too quietly for the Master to make out the words, but the tone was meant to be comforting. The Doctor reacted to her words, still alive. The Master quickly snapped an order to Jenny, before running over to the Doctor and Rose. Jenny nodded at his instruction, and ran back into the TARDIS.

As he reached them, he skidded to a halt kneeling next to the Doctor, barely registering Rose's desperate pleas for her not to die. He placed one hand on the Doctor's shoulder where he could sense the degenerative energy of the Dalek's weapon taking effect. A Dalek weapon's blast to the heart- either one- had a high chance of not just killing but preventing regeneration as well. This had been a glancing blow, so it didn't need to be fatal. Unless they wasted time. Jack and Donna reached them a couple of seconds later, and he looked up at them, "We need to get her to the TARDIS, now."

Jack nodded, although the scowl on his face showed how much he loathed the idea of agreeing with the Master. The Master and Donna, between them, lifted the Doctor and carried her to the TARDIS. Rose stayed close, never once letting go of the Doctor's hand. Jack picked up Rose's weapon, and followed them, keeping an eye out for other Daleks, just in case. The Master made a mental note to comment on humans and their obsession with the size of their toys, but decided now was not the time.

x x x

As soon as they made it inside the TARDIS, Donna crumpled, muttering, "Boy, she's heavy for a stick-insect."

The Master might have laughed, had the situation not been so serious, as he lowered the Doctor to the floor.

"Got it!" Jenny shouted, rushing into the control room from the door that led to the rest of the ship. He had- quite correctly, it turned out- theorised that the soldier-girl was the perfect one to train as a field-medic. He didn't know everything about healing, and even less about Earth medicine, but he'd found textbooks, and taught Jenny what everything in the medbay was meant to do. It helped that she was a fast learner.

She was now holding the device that the Master had asked her to get. It was one of very few surviving pieces of Gallifreyan technology left in the ship's medbay, and it was designed to heal Time Lords, specifically. Of course, it wouldn't work if they took too long. Once a regeneration started it wouldn't stop just for this. And if memory served, the Doctor had never been very good at controlling his regenerations, in the past.

The Master pushed the Doctor's jacket and shirt back from the shoulder that had been struck by the weapon, and took the device from Jenny. He tried to ignore the way the Doctor was whimpering in pain. It didn't suit her, he never wanted to see her in pain like this. Well, not without being the cause of it himself, anyway.

"What are you doing?" Jack demanded. Whether he was angry at the Master for daring to touch the Doctor at all, or at himself for not knowing what to do to help, it was unclear, but he definitely sounded angry.

"Trying to heal her." he answered, pressing the device to the Doctor's shoulder, and activating it.

A couple of seconds later, she shook her head and weakly pushed him away, "Too late." she whispered. He could literally feel the burning when she touched his arm to push him away, and her hand was glowing with the first traces of regeneration energy.

He backed away from her instinctively, standing up as he did so, "I'm sorry." he said, frowning. He couldn't remember ever sincerely apologising for anything, before. But normally anything he did that others might believe warranted an apology was deliberate. This time he had tried to help her, and failed.

"Rose, get back." Jack ordered, pulling her away. Only now did the Master realise she had been right at his shoulder as he'd been attempting to heal the Doctor. "She's dying and you know what happens next."

Donna scowled, and hugged Jenny, who looked like she wanted to cry, but her machine-given instincts wouldn't let her actually show that weakness. The Master looked away from them all, now. He didn't want to accept this- a regeneration significantly reduced the estimated life-span of any Time Lord, it wasn't that he cared about this one life, but he did care about the Doctor as a whole, however much he may vehemently deny that to anyone else- but it was too late to do anything more.

Even when he closed his eyes, the golden light was still visible through his eyelids. It always felt wrong to witness another Time Lord's regeneration, the energy involved was volatile and somehow repellent. Even being in the same room felt wrong.

But something shifted, the angle the light struck his face, and even the feel of the energy itself. But it hadn't stopped, it was far too soon to have stopped. He dared to look at the Doctor, squinting to avoid being blinded. But he couldn't see anything more than that golden glow throughout the room.

Finally, it finished, and he was able to open his eyes properly. There stood the Doctor, exactly the same as she had been before the energy enveloped her. "And you call me a cheater!" he said aloud, trying not to laugh.

Jack and Rose were staring in absolute shock, Donna in mild confusion, but Jenny seemed to think this was a good thing and grinned brightly. The Master wasn't sure what she'd done, but it definitely had to count as a cheat. Only once in Time Lord history had anyone remained _exactly _ the same after a regeneration, and that individual had been incredibly powerful and capable of manipulating the process to pick and choose exactly how they wanted to appear.

The Master knew with absolute certainty that the Doctor was _not _ that good. She hadn't even been able to hold back the regeneration to allow him to heal her.

The Doctor rolled her eyes at him, and fixed her shirt where it had been pulled to one side in his attempt to heal her. She was grinning brightly, "Your concern is touching." she sniped sarcastically. This caused him to smile, in spite of his best efforts.

"How...?" Jack asked, still in shock. The look on his face was, in the Master's opinion, utterly priceless.

"Well... once the regeneration began, I couldn't stop it." the Doctor began, going into in full lecture-mode, "So, I used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to, why would I? Look at me!" she held out her hands, as if inviting them all to actually look at her. Even though she was the centre of attention already, "So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely, my hand." she pointed to the spare hand-in-a-jar below the console, "My hand there, my handy spare hand!" she turned to a still stunned Rose, and smiled, "Remember, Christmas Day, Sycorax, lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What d'you think?"

"Say the word 'hand', one more time, I'll break one of yours." the Master sniped. Just because it was an idle threat, didn't make it any less heartfelt.

Rose glanced between the two for a second, then returned her full attention to the Doctor, "Well..." she frowned, "Are you still you? I mean, you've changed since..."

The Doctor smiled, "That wasn't a regeneration. Regeneration can't do this." she gestured to her body to indicate the fact she was female, "It was an alien weapon, completely reversible."

Rose's eyes lit up at that, "So you're still you?"

"I'm still me." the Doctor answered, nodding.

Rose hesitated for only a second, still a bit unsure, but then she hugged the Doctor. Relief and- that had to be the emotion people called 'love'- filled the room in an instant. The Master could almost smell the emotion, and it made him nauseous.

Jenny grinned brightly as she watched, and Donna moved to stand next to Jack. "You can hug me, if you want." Donna suggested to Jack, still smiling. Jack laughed, barely noticing what she'd said, so she repeated in perfect seriousness, "No, really, you can hug me." Jack actually looked at Donna, now, and happily complied with her suggestion.

A few seconds passed, before this sappy little scene finally ended, and everyone was over the euphoria of the Doctor's continued existence. How they could care so much about one single incarnation over the concept of the next was completely beyond the Master's comprehension. It was still the same person, regardless.

The Doctor began working on the TARDIS controls, trying to track something, from what little the Master could figure out, before Captain Jack suddenly interrupted his concentration, "You." he said, coldly, "You shot that Dalek."

"I did, didn't I?" the Master said, grinning. He took out the laser screwdriver and held it up where Jack could see. Waved it in front of the human's face is more like it, actually. The Captain's eyes widened in an almost comical display of outright horror, as the Master put the weapon away again. "The Doctor told me I was allowed to kill Daleks." he added coldly, "And I thought it only fair, since that Dalek did almost kill her."

Jack continued to glare, anyway. His lack of retort was the only sign that he accepted that statement, however much he may want to disagree with the Master on principle. But then he seemed compelled to pointed out, "Well I still like my gun better." while watching the laser screwdriver as if the Master would use it to kill him any second now.

The Master glanced at the very large weapon that Jack had brought to the imminent Dalek-massacre, and laughed, "I'm a Time Lord. I don't need my toys to _look _ bigger."

"Um, sorry, but who are you?" Rose asked, staring at the Master now, "Jack, Sarah Jane and that Martha girl don't seem to like you much. But then you go and try to save the Doctor's life?"

"Just because I tried to take over the Earth that one time, Miss Jones and the Captain here take offence at my continued existence." the Master said, in a falsely defensive tone, "As for Sarah Jane, I only saw her one time, but I guess I made an impression. And really, I'm offended. The Doctor talks about you all the time- never shuts up, actually- but he never once mentioned me to you?"

Rose stared at him for that, "You knew the Doctor before he met me?"

"Do you want to tell her, or should I?" he asked, looking at the Doctor with a bemused smirk.

The Doctor sighed, not looking up from what she was doing, "If I let you tell her, you'll make it sound bad." she said sulkily, before quickly glancing up at Rose, "The Master is a Time Lord. We used to be friends." a brief glare at the Master, "Before he started trying to take over the universe." She didn't stop what she was doing, in spite of this.

"I thought you were the last?" Rose asked, surprised.

"So did I." she answered, nodding, "But this one is very good at faking his own death. Makes a hobby of it."

It was at this moment that Captain Jack finally stopped trying to glare the Master to death, and turned to scan the rest of the inhabitants of the TARDIS, his eyes landing on the only one who had yet to speak. Jenny. "Hello." he said, smiling at her, "I'm Captain Jack Harkness."

"Wouldn't do that if I were you, Captain." the Master warned. Unfortunately, at this moment, the lights went out and the TARDIS powered down.

The Doctor started running around the console, pressing buttons that now did absolutely nothing, and checking readouts, half of which had relied on the power that was no longer being supplied to the console. Yet, in spite of this she didn't break the flow of conversation as she added to the Master's statement, "Unless you _want _ me to kill you."

Jack blinked, and turned to stare at the Doctor in shock, "You what, now?" He was probably just as shocked by the lack of power as by the Doctor's words. Neither were particularly normal events, especially the Doctor handing out death threats to a friend, even if said friend was immortal.

"Daleks found us." the Doctor said, as if this answered Jack's question, "Power's gone! Some kind of chronon loop."

"Not what I was asking about." Jack muttered, "But good to know." he added in a sarcastic impersonation of cheerfulness.

"That-" the Master pointed at Jenny, "-is the Doctor's daughter."

Jack's eyes widened, and he glanced back at Jenny, then to the Doctor again.

"How?" Rose asked, suddenly scowling.

"Sixty-first century progenation machine." the Doctor answered bluntly, still checking the TARDIS' systems. Finally, she shook her head, "It's no good, they've got us." she said, leaving the controls alone now, staring at them as if the TARDIS had personally offended her somehow.

At that moment, the TARDIS started to shake, as it was pulled away from the Earth. It seemed that the Daleks were better at towing a TARDIS than the Doctor was at flying it, though, because after the initial turbulence it became a perfectly smooth ride, wherever they were going.

"I'm beginning to wonder if Time Lords ever have sex." Jack muttered sulkily.

"No, we don't." the Master said, smirking at the Captain's shocked stare when he heard that answer.

"I was joking!" he complained.

"I wasn't." the Master said, dismissively.

Rose opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, then shut it with an audible click of her teeth and didn't say anything. Although, it did seem fairly obvious to the Master what she had been thinking. She was madly in love with the Doctor, and she was human, it really wasn't difficult to guess.

"Technically, not for over one-hundred-thousand years before either the Master or I were... born." the Doctor hesitated on that last word, but apparently she could not be bothered explaining the technology involved to the humans right now. "I suppose you could compare it to genetic engineering, the desire for physical intimacy was written out of our DNA because it was perceived by the High Council as primitive and pointless. Doesn't mean we can't, just that we generally don't."

"There's a first time for everything." Jack offered hopefully.

"Only if you're interested in the homicidal maniac, Jack." the Doctor said, grinning as the Captain's smile faded. Her eyes flickered to Rose for an instant, and the Master doubted anyone else noticed it except the human in question.

x x x

"So where are we being taken?" Jenny asked, finally joining the rest of them near the console, where she chose to stand next to Donna. She had been watching, trying to figure out what these Daleks were, and why they had terrified her mother so. But since the conversation had refused to lean towards the danger of their current situation, she decided to actually ask instead of merely listening and waiting.

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets." Jack answered, carefully not to so much as looking at Jenny, right now. Probably the smart thing to do, really. She felt certain that death-threat had been real, and it had surprised even her. "They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination."

Donna frowned, but then voiced her own confusion, "You said these planets were like an engine. But what for?"

"Rose!" the Doctor said, turning to face the human in question, "You've been in a parallel world, that world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

"It's the darkness." Rose answered.

Her training may not be very good, but Jenny was sure she sensed recognition from the Master at that. She glanced at him, and frowned. He looked like he was seriously considering something. Something not good.

"The stars were going out." Donna added.

Rose nodded, and continued, quietly. Sadly. "One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, um... this travel machine, this... this, er, Dimension Cannon, so I c- well, so, I could- so I could come back to this reality. It didn't work at first, but then suddenly... no reason we could tell, it just worked. The dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything."

Donna, who had been watching Rose carefully, spoke up now, sounding afraid of the answer, but that didn't stop her, "In that parallel world... you said something about me."

"The Dimension Cannon could measure timelines." Rose explained, seeming unsure of what she was saying, "And it's- it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you."

"But why me?" Donna complained, "I mean, what have I ever done? I'm a temp. From Chiswick!"

The Master actually snorted at this statement, but didn't say whatever he was thinking. Jenny, on the other hand, "You've done loads, though." she said, confused as to why Donna would think she was in any way unimportant.

A beeping noise sounded from the only surviving monitor on the control console, and the Doctor frowned at it, "The Dalek Crucible. All aboard." her tone was resigned, rather than the usual eagerness she showed going into danger.

"These Daleks...?" Jenny asked warily.

"Bad news." the Master answered dismissively, as if he didn't want to tell her more if he didn't have to.

"I'll tell you all about it once we get out of this mess." the Doctor promised. It sounded hollow... like, for the first time since Jenny had known her, the Doctor really believed they wouldn't find a way out of this one.

"_**The TARDIS is secured.**_" declared a grating electric voice, which came from outside.

And a lower voice in the same electric form added, "_**Doctor, you will step forth or die.**_"

"We'll have to go out." the Doctor said, frowning, "Because if we don't, they'll get in."

"You told me nothing could get through those doors." Rose protested.

"You've got extrapolator shielding!" Jack added.

"Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids and mad." the Doctor replied, somewhere between her usual we're-in-danger-now-it's-time-to-run manic and painful desperation, "But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do almost anything. Right now, that wooden door... is just wood."

"What about your Dimension Jump?" Jack asked, turning to Rose.

"It needs another twenty minutes, and anyway, I'm not leaving." Rose answered.

Jenny, who had been standing next to Donna throughout the entire conversation, suddenly noticed the silence from her. It wasn't just a lack of talking, it was a complete mental block, as if she wasn't really all there right now. "You ok, Donna?" she asked in a low voice.

"What about your teleport?" the Doctor continued, oblivious.

"Went down with the power loss." Jack answered.

Jenny touched Donna's shoulder, about to ask once more, but flinched as she did so, holding her head in pain. So that's what she'd done to the Master during her telepathy lessons. Ouch.

"Jenny?" the Doctor asked, quickly moving to her side.

"It's Donna, she's looking weird." Jenny answered.

Donna snapped out of it, and said, "I'm fine. Really."

"I'm sorry." the Doctor said softly, "There's nothing else we can do."

"There's got to be a way to fight them?" Jenny asked.

The Doctor shook her head, but didn't answer.

"_**Surrender, Doctor, and face your Dalek masters.**_" that electronic voice outside insisted.

Jenny had gotten a glimpse of one Dalek, out on the Earth street, and she wasn't particularly keen on meeting more of them. But still, she was a solider, and she certainly wasn't a coward. Surrender, she had learned, was one of the Doctor's favourite tactics. Never with the intention to simply accept the enemy's authority, but more to get to see what they were up to before fighting them.

"Daleks." Rose said nervously, laughing in a way that showed her fear.

Jack laughed, too, but it was more irreverent to their enemies and much less fearful, "Oh, God!"

"It's been good, though, hasn't it?" the Doctor asked, her tone far too final.

"Oh, don't you dare get sentimental _now_." the Master snapped, "They said step forth _or _ die. Or, not and."

Jenny laughed, "He's got a point, mum."

"Decoy?" the Doctor asked, looking right at the Master.

"Pick a name." he said, by way of an answer.

She raised an eyebrow at him, and grinned nervously, "Rani?"

He laughed at that, "I hate her. That works."

"I never liked her much, either." the Doctor admitted, "You first." she gestured to the door.

The Master rolled his eyes, "At least the odds of immediate execution are lower than the last time, if I'm pretending to be you." he muttered.

"Quit stalling." Jack sniped.

The Master shot him a glare, but then pushed open the door and stepped out. As soon as the door opened, she heard that electronic voice, the lower tone of it, "_**Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!**_"

The Doctor followed right behind him, with Rose and Jack. Now more of what must be Dalek voices- sounded like loads of them, actually- repeated this chant, "_**Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!**_"

'_Wish for a mute button. Wish for a mute button. Oh, I've been spending too much time with the Master, haven't I?_' Donna was frozen again, silent and blank. Jenny touched her arm warily, "Hey, we're leaving now." she noted, but got no response.

"_**Behold, Doctor! Behold the might of the true Dalek race!**_" the lower Dalek voice said, sounding quite smug really.

"I've seen better." the Master said coldly. She could tell he was thinking it slightly differently from the way he said it. Thinking his own opinion, while voicing his pretence at the Doctor's, his thoughts implied the words '_I've had better_', and it was actively projected.

Someone else out there- not the Doctor, but perceptive enough to pick up the thought- found it funny, but she neither knew who it was, nor did she get the joke.

"_**Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks! Daleks reign supreme. All hail the Daleks!**_"

'_Mute button, mute button, mute button!_' "Come on, Donna." she insisted, trying to drag her to the door, but strong as she may be, Donna had somehow become the immovable object, and Jenny wasn't quite an unstoppable force yet.

But now, Donna turned around to stare at the console. "No, no, this way, Donna." Jenny insisted.

"You're no safer in there." the Doctor added.

Jenny jumped at the sound of the door slamming behind her, and turned around startled, "What?" she demanded, hearing the Doctor ask the same question at the same time, from outside.

Donna had snapped out of it, now, but too late. "What happened?" she demanded.

Jenny, on the other hand, "Sorry, mum." she whispered under her breath, not for the door closing but for what she was about to do, "Just wood. Just wood." she reminded herself, before turning and kicking out hard at the door. Nothing. Not a dent. "Liar." Not just wood. Just wood would have broken for that. Maybe it's as good as wood for Dalek weapons... but not for her boots, that was for sure.

"What was that?" the Doctor shouted, sounding indignant. Yeah, she'd probably be mad about that when she realised exactly what Jenny'd just tried to do.

"Trying to open the door." Jenny supplied unhelpfully, looking around for something else to try. Nothing came to mind. She certainly didn't know how to work any of the controls, even if they were functional right now. And she somehow doubted the Doctor kept a battering ram on board.

"Oi!" Donna shouted at the door, hitting it with the palms of her hands, "Oi, I'm not staying behind!"

x x x


	28. Dalek Caan

x x x

**Chapter 28: Dalek Caan**

x x x

"What did you do?" the Doctor yelled, turning to face the Supreme Dalek. When she looked at it, she couldn't help but notice the comparison to human males of a certain age and mentality. Red shiny casing that's bigger than all the other Daleks around. Yep, very distinct similarities.

"This is not of Dalek origin." it answered.

"Well we didn't do it." the Master said coldly, "We're not that stupid, you know."

"Stop it! Just open the door and let them out, right now." the Doctor said, her tone becoming ominous and warning. She was losing her composure, but somehow didn't care.

"This is Time Lord treachery." the Dalek insisted.

"Alright, so you didn't do it. But we didn't do it, either. Does that mean we have a mutual enemy somewhere on board your ship?" the Master asked, anger slipping into his voice, probably at the sheer idiocy this Dalek was displaying.

The Dalek hesitated for a moment at that possibility, but seemed to dismiss it easily enough, "Illogical." it declared, "The TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed." Before anyone could try to argue, the TARDIS fell through the floor, and out of sight.

"No!" the Doctor shrieked.

She might have actually tried to dive after the TARDIS, if the Master hadn't caught her around the waist and pulled her back. She realised this a second after she had reacted so instinctively, and wasn't sure if she should curse him for stopping her, or be grateful for it.

"What are you doing? Bring them back!" the Doctor snarled, glaring at the Supreme Dalek, suddenly wishing for the spirits of the Torajii sun that had possessed him, just so she could melt this accursed creature with her gaze alone. When that didn't happen and it didn't answer her, she pulled out of the Master's grasp, and ran forward to directly face the Dalek. "What've you done, where are they going?" she demanded, desperately hoping for any option that would buy time, enough to find and save them. All three of them.

"The Crucible has a heart of Z-Neutrino Energy." the Dalek answered, "The TARDIS will be deposited into the core."

"But with the defences down..." the Master said stepping up next to the Doctor, and putting a hand on her shoulder to hold her back, "They'll be killed." It was stated as a fact and an accusation, not a plea. He was good at hiding his emotions, but the touch to her shoulder weakened his mental defences against her, and she could sense that he did care for them in spite of this.

'_The words Dalek and mercy don't go in the same sentence, why bother arguing with them on that front?_' That thought wasn't hers. He was telling her to back down. But she couldn't just let this go. She couldn't!

"But Donna and Jenny are still in there!" Rose snarled, also approaching the Supreme Dalek.

"Let them go!" Jack demand, adding to Rose's protest, as if it would help.

"The females and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe!" the Supreme Dalek declared, activating a holo-screen. When she saw the screen, displaying the TARDIS floating on the edge of a sphere of deadly energy, the Doctor closed her eyes, and turned away from the sight. She actually turned towards the Master, leaning against him to hide the tears forming in her eyes.

She was surprised when she felt his arm around her shoulders, protectively. Even more so when she heard his voice, "Don't do this. I'll do anything you want." his tone hardened as he continued, "You think me the Destroyer of Worlds? You've not seen my worst yet. I'll burn whatever stands in your way, your weapon to wield as you see fit, if you just let them live."

Bribery. Somehow she should have seen that one coming.

"Daleks have no use of Time Lord duplicity. You are connected to the TARDIS. Now feel it die!" the Dalek declared.

The Doctor felt the Master's hand touch the side of her face. A question, asking for permission to feel her pain. To try to ease it if he could. She lowered her mental shields to accept his offer, now allowing the tears to run freely down her face. This shouldn't be happening. She'd known there was danger, but the number of times they had all survived, and even thrived on danger, it had never felt so final until now.

"Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels." a lower-ranking Dalek informed them. "Nine, eight, seven-" she felt the Master touch her mind, calming her fear. Soft soundless whispers of comfort, "-six, five, four, three, two, one."

In spite of the Master's attempts to ease the pain burning in her hearts as the TARDIS suffered, she had flinched as the countdown reached its end. But she felt nothing. No loss, no death. Even the pain she had felt echoing from the TARDIS during the countdown had vanished. Her eyes snapped open with a start, no longer crying. Even the Master was surprised by this, though he refused to show this emotion to anyone but her.

"The TARDIS has been destroyed." the Supreme Dalek declared. If it could, she's swear it sounded pleased with itself, "Now tell me, Doctor. What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"

"As if you could possibly understand." the Master growled, showing anger in his voice. When the Doctor considered pulling away from him, he tightened his grip around her shoulders for a second. '_Don't let them see hope in your eyes_.' And then he let her go.

She wouldn't have shown that emotion, even without his advice. The Daleks could do with a false sense of security, however little hope the TARDIS might offer without her on board. There was still a chance that Donna could pilot her. In fact, that was the most logical reason for the disappearance.

The Doctor carefully wiped the worst of the tears from her face, before looking up at the others. Rose was watching her with concern. Jack seemed more intent on glaring at the Dalek instead.

"Then if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?" the Dalek gloated.

"Yeah?" Jack asked, angrily, "Feel this!" and he pulled out a handgun and fired it at the Supreme Dalek. He must have known it would be useless against Dalek armour, what was he playing at?

"Exterminate!" the Dalek yelled, firing on Jack and hitting him squarely in the chest. For anyone else, that would have been a kill-shot. She distantly wondered if Jack was temporarily incapacitated, or outright faking.

"Jack! Oh, my God! Oh, no!" Rose cried, kneeling next to him.

The Master moved over to Rose's side and said, "Leave him." pulling her away from Jack.

"They killed him." she protested, horrified, and reluctant to allow the Master to pull her to her feet, though he succeeded in doing so without her help.

The Doctor took Rose's hand, and whispered to her, "There's nothing we can do."

"Escort them to the Vault." the Supreme Dalek ordered, "They are the playthings of Davros now."

"There's a mental picture I didn't need." the Master muttered, glancing at Jack. The Doctor also looked, and saw the Captain fight back a smile very quickly. Rose missed that, which was probably for the best, as the Doctor could imagine her shriek of surprise would easily ruin Jack's ruse.

x x x

Thank goodness for artificial gravity, or they'd be on the ceiling! Jenny had always wondered at the fire-extinguisher over there. She hoped it wasn't the sort the Master had told her Earth did, where they had fake snakes inside instead of fire-retardant, as she grabbed it. It worked, which was good. Fires in electronics, always bad. Unless it's the enemy's electronics and the fire comes from a deliberate attempt at sabotage, that makes it fun. This was not fun.

Donna was doing her silent-trance-type thing again. It was getting annoying, Jenny didn't want to deal with this alone. She didn't know where they were falling to, though she knew they were falling in spite of the stable internal gravity. And pressing buttons would be a bad idea for her, she'd not gotten around to asking for driving lessons yet.

She looked up after dodging an explosion from one of the little round things in the wall. They must be there for something, so blowing up couldn't be good for them, either. But when she looked, Donna was glowing. It was weird, really. Like the regeneration thing, except not. And Donna was human. Humans don't do that.

Didn't change the fact, Donna was glowing, and when Jenny looked around the console, she saw that so was the hand-in-a-jar. The one that had been weird and bubbly since the Doctor had regenerated. The jar shattered. More glass. Glass all over the place.

Now all that glowy-ness was in the hand, and Donna backed away from it a bit. Jenny decided if the entranced human who was part of whatever was going on wanted to back off, so did she, and edged around to the far side of the console. The systems were coming to life again, and something was crying in pain in the back of her mind. She shut it out, not forcefully but firmly. No distractions, please.

When she looked up once more at the glowy-ness, the hand had grown. It was now a whole body, still all glowing light. But with one last blinding flash, it took physical form, sitting up very suddenly. From which she quickly looked away, trying not to laugh at the fact she probably should have seen that coming.

Donna, on the other hand, continued to stare. "It's you?" she asked in shock.

"Oh yes!" the face had told her it was the Doctor... before whatever made him turn into a woman.

And Donna then pointed out the reason Jenny had looked away. "You're naked!"

"Oh yes."

"Clothes second." Jenny announced, drawing both their attention, "TARDIS burning, press buttons make it stop first."

The Doctor pulled himself up to the console, and looked at the buttons within sight, then flicked a pair of switches. The TARDIS dematerialised, and the crying in her mind stopped.

"Then number three, plan to rescue the others. D, rescue, and five, run away?"

"Oh, the Master was right." the Doctor said, shaking his head, "There is a strong resemblance."

x x x

"Activate the holding cells." Davros ordered. Beams of light fell like spotlights on a stage show, one for each of the three prisoners. Rose looked around the room, warily, but aside from herself, the Doctor and the Master, only Davros was visible. The rest was concealed by shadows.

The Master immediately tested the holding cell's strength. Rose tentatively mimicked him, touching the edge of her cell as well. A slight shock, barely noticeable, but the light that flickered across it signified a solid force-field. The Doctor watched the other two, but didn't even try touching her force-field.

"Excellent." Davros gloated, "Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained."

"Scared of us?" the Doctor asked, smiling.

Davros looked from her to the Master, and back again. "Two Time Lords?" he asked, surprised. Apparently the Supreme Dalek either couldn't tell the difference between a Time Lord and a human, or it had neglected to inform Davros of this detail. "Identify yourself, Time Lady." he ordered to the Doctor.

She just smiled coldly at him, "Oh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. And while we're on this subject, I hate the term 'Time Lady'. As a collective, we're all referred to as Time Lords. I could name one female Time Lord in particular, try calling her a Lady, within half an hour she'd see to it that you'd have the Ori plague!"

The Master laughed at this, clearly knowing who the Doctor was talking about.

"Identify yourself, now!" Davros repeated, almost yelling, interrupting the Doctor as she opened her mouth to add something else to her pointless monologue.

"I'm bored, go on, tell him." the Master said, smiling cruelly at Davros, "It's no fun pretending, can't say half of what I'm thinking!"

Davros seemed unsurprised by the malice aimed at him, even though he thought that it was the Doctor glaring homicidally at him.

"Alright, then. I'm the Doctor." the Doctor answered. And she showed no malice at all. More like idly curiosity at how Davros would react to this information.

Davros looked from one Time Lord to the other, startled, though somehow he accepted this more easily than Rose had done. "Then perhaps it is you, who should identify yourself?" he asked the Master.

"Like I said, the phrase is ridiculously overused." the Master said simply.

"'Why won't you just stay dead'?" Davros quoted, surprised. Rose had heard the conversation over the Subwave, though only Davros' face had been visible for it. "Only one name comes to mind there."

"Funny, I can think of four." the Master said, smirking darkly.

Davros seemed to glare. It was difficult to tell, he only had the one eye, and it was incapable of expression, but the anger was clear. "The Master?"

"Bet you never thought you'd see me again. What with the fact that you were present at my execution."

"Very interesting, Doctor." Davros said, amused, "Fraternising with the enemy."

"You wish." the Master sniped, smirking evilly. The Doctor shot him an indignant look, and Rose made a surprised squeaking sound at the blatant suggestion that the only one here, who was currently enemy of the Doctor, was Davros himself. That was something even Captain Jack would probably have hesitated to suggest. No, don't think about Jack, don't want to cry, now. Brave face, Rose.

"Can we please leave out the mandatory gloating and insults? There are more important things to discuss." the Doctor pointed out.

"Indeed." Davros agreed, "It is time we talked, Doctor. After so very long."

"No no no no no, we're not doing the nostalgia tour, either. I wanna know what's happening, right here, right now. 'Cause the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yes?"

"It's a pretty word." the Master agreed, "Sounds better than it means."

"Exactly." the Doctor said, nodding, "Vault. As in dungeon? Cellar? Prison? You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?"

"We have... an arrangement." Davros said defensively. Oh, the Doctor was right! Davros was actually embarrassed by this.

"No no no, I've got the word." the Doctor declared brightly, "You're the Daleks' pet!"

The Master opened his mouth, clearly about to say something, but shut it quickly, as if deciding it inappropriate for the situation.

"So very full of fire, is she not?" Davros asked, turning his attention to Rose, "And to think you crossed entire universes, striding parallel to parallel to find him again." How did he know that? "Oh, but you weren't looking for _her_."

Rose's eyes narrowed at that statement, "And that last part matters, how?" she asked. And what's more, she realised she actually meant it.

At almost the same time, the Doctor snapped at Davros, "Leave her alone."

"She is mine, to do as I please." Davros answered the Doctor coldly.

"Then why am I still alive?" Rose asked.

"You must be here. It was foretold." Davros said. "Even the Supreme Dalek would not dare to contradict the prophecies of Dalek Caan."

A spotlight appeared, up against a wall, revealing what looked like the lower half of a Dalek's armour, chained to the ground and broken open to reveal a tentacled monster inside. When it spoke it was in an insane sing-song voice, "So cold and dark, fire is coming, the endless flames."

"What is that thing?" Rose asked, frowning at it. It had to be a Dalek, really, but it was hideous even in comparison to the only other Dalek she'd seen without its casing sealed. And it sounded far more emotional and, well, demented, than the rest of its kind.

"That's the last of the Cult of Skaro." the Doctor answered, "But it flew into the Time War, unprotected."

"Caan did more than that." Davros told them, "He saw time, its infinite complexity and majesty, raging through his mind. And he saw you. All of you."

"This I have foreseen, in the wild, and the wind." Caan continued, "The Doctor will be here, as witness. The Lords of Death, at the end of everything. The Doctor and his precious Children of Time." it giggled maniacally, "And one of them will die!"

"Define death?" the Master asked, smirking, "Cause, been there, done that... they don't to T-shirts, unfortunately."

"Never-ending death! For the most faithful of companions!"

"Oh, so I get to live, then?" the Master asked snarkily, but the Doctor had shouted over him.

"Was it you, Caan?" she snarled, "Did you close the TARDIS door? Did you kill them?"

"Oh, that's it!" Davros cheered maliciously, "The anger. The fire. The rage of a Time Lord who butchered millions. There it is!" the Doctor froze at this description, and turned to glare coldly at Davros, no longer shouting. More like ice than fire. "Why so shy? Show your companion. Show her your true self. Dalek Caan has promised me that, too."

"I have seen." Caan agreed, "At the time of ending, the Doctor's soul will be revealed."

"What' that supposed to mean?" the Doctor asked, scowling at Dalek Caan.

"We will discover it together." Davros answered. So, in other words, he didn't know, "Our final journey. Because the ending approaches, the testing begins." That sounded ominous. Testing, always worrying when it's a bad guy talking.

"Testing of what?" the Doctor asked, turning to look at Davros once more.

"The Reality Bomb." Davros said happily. Yep, bad thing, had to be.

"I can't help but notice that no one seems bothered by the fact that I butchered millions, too." the Master complained, as if he was deliberately trying to break the tension in the room, "Then again, most of those weren't Daleks, so why would you care, Davros?" No one else took any notice of his words, except Rose, who gave him a startled look. She wondered why the Doctor even kept him around, if he was really as much of a monster as he seemed.

The reason no one else noticed what the Master had said was because of the Dalek voice over the communications system, announcing the status of whatever was going on. Rose didn't get what they were talking about, but the Doctor was trying to figure it out.

And Davros was in gloat mode. "Behold the apotheosis of my genius!" he declared, activating a holo-screen, so they could see what this 'testing' was going to do. Rose was pretty sure she didn't actually want to know.

The countdown got to zero, and the lower voice of the Supreme Dalek spoke, "Activate planetary alignment field!"

After a few seconds, the Doctor figured out what was going on, and not a moment too soon, either, "That's Z-Neutrino energy... flattened by the alignment of the planets into a single string." Ok, not explaining anything, here. Although the Master seemed to understand, and his face wasn't able to decide between lighting up with gleeful amazement or staring in shocked horror. But the Doctor picked horror without any hesitation whatsoever, as she turned to Davros, shouting, "No! Davros! Davros, you can't! You can't! _No!_"

Rose turned to look up at the screen, not really sure she should, but obviously getting a straightforward non-technobabble answer from anyone right now wasn't gonna work, so she had to try to see for herself. The screen showed a group of humans in the centre of a room, with Daleks guarding them, and something big overhead. The something big was glowing a sickly yellow-green.

The energy built up over the next few seconds, and then something started happening to the prisoners. They just... evaporated? Turned to dust? It was that sickly yellow-green colour, too. And suddenly she felt like throwing up, as she turned to look away from that horrible sight.

"Test completed." a Dalek voice declared over the communications system.

"Doctor? What happened?" she asked nervously.

But the Doctor didn't answer. She was too busy staring at Davros in horror. So Davros deigned to answer the question instead, "Electrical energy, Miss Tyler. Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."

"Stars are going out." she whispered, mirroring the words she had told Donna.

"The twenty-seven planets." the Doctor said, still in shock, "They become one big transmitter. Blasting that wavelength-" but she hesitated, still totally horrified.

"Across the entire universe." Davros continued happily, "Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become... nothing."

Rose glanced from Davros to the other two prisoners, trying to see if they had any idea of what to do against this terrible new weapon. She was shocked to see the Master was actually trying not to laugh, his eyes alight with something she really couldn't describe, but it certainly didn't look too sane.

Davros didn't seem to notice this, however, "And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every single corner of creation! This is my ultimate victory, Doctor!" Rose just caught a stifled snort from the Master, but it was so quiet she doubted Davros noticed it over the sound of his own voice, "The destruction of reality itself!"

And now that speech was over, the Master stopped fighting it, and burst out laughing. No, cackling, that's a better word for it. Maniacal cackling, the likes of which all TV and movie evil overlords could only ever dream of. Now this had got Davros' attention. And the Doctor's, as well. Davros looked highly offended, while the Doctor looked utterly disgusted at the Master's irreverence to the horror they had just witnessed.

The laughter continued for almost a minute, but then it stopped very abruptly, and he became perfectly serous as if he'd never laughed in his life. "Then what?" he asked. A simple question, but Rose would never even have considered it.

Davros just stared at him, dumbstruck, and unable to answer.

The Master rolled his eyes, and explained the question, "You destroy everything. Every life, on every world, in every galaxy, in every possible reality. Then what? All these warships, with no war to wage. All your children, made to kill, but there's nothing left for them to slaughter. No more lives to exterminate and no more worlds to conquer. No purpose. No reason to be." his gaze, fixed on Davros as it was, turned from simple idle questioning to deathly cold, ominous as if he knew exactly what he was talking about, "Nothing but the dead and howling void, cowering from the abyss, with nothing left but to scream at the dark. Trapped in their little metal shells, lost in the never-ending night!"

"Weeping for diamonds and blood!" Caan added gleefully. At that, the Master closed his eyes, as if those words had struck him as viciously as he had just attempted to strike Davros, but the sigh that escaped his lips was one of pleasure.

The ominous silence that followed was frightening. Rose wondered how the Master could possibly know such things, but when she looked in the direction of the two Time Lords, she saw the Doctor watching him with something akin to sympathy. Only when he decided that the silence had drawn out long enough did the Master smile coldly.

"You see? Dalek Caan understands me."

x x x


	29. Three Doctors

x x x

**Chapter 29: Three Doctors**

x x x

"This message is for the Dalek Crucible, repeat, can you hear me?" the Doctor looked up at the holoscreen that had just activated. It was Martha, and according to the symbols flickering below the main image, the message originated on Earth.

"Let me speak to her." the Doctor said immediately, turning to Davros. It was made to sound like an order, but really she knew that concept wasn't particularly believable right now.

Davros ignore the command, looking far too smug, "It begins. As Dalek Caan foretold."

"The Children of Time will gather." Caan giggled. Yes, a giggling Dalek, that was more scary than anything else she'd ever seen. "And one of them will die!"

"Stop saying that!" she snapped at it, "Let me speak to her!" she said to Davros, less of an order and more of a plea, this time.

Martha must have heard her, because she spoke directly to her now, "Doctor! I'm sorry. I had to."

"Oh, but the Doctor is powerless. My prisoner." Davros gloated, as he approached the holoscreen to address Martha directly.

"_That _ doesn't say much." the Master sniped. And if they hadn't been separated by force-fields the Doctor would have hit him. The playful kind, upside the head, with no real force behind it, and she did try to project this image to his mind. He glanced at her with a smile, though whether that was at his own words or her thoughts she couldn't quite tell.

But Davros ignored him, "State your intent."

"I've got the Osterhagen Key." Martha declared, as if they ought to know what that meant, "Leave this planet and its people alone. Or I'll use it."

"Osterhagen what? What's an Osterhagen Key?" the Doctor asked. If she didn't know, then Davros certainly didn't.

"End of the world." the Master said simply. He knew, brilliant, just brilliant. Knowing her luck, he had a part in creating it, and all!

"There's a chain of twenty-five nuclear warheads, placed in strategic points beneath the Earth's crust. If I use the key, they detonate and the Earth gets ripped apart."

"What?" she snapped, horrified at the very idea, "Who invented that?"

Her gaze turned to the Master, who shrugged, amused by her suspicion, "Not me."

"Well, must have been someone called Osterhagen, then, I suppose." the Doctor continued, "Martha, are you insane!"

Martha looked pained as she answered her, "The Osterhagen Key is to be used, if the suffering of the human race is so great, so without hope... that this becomes the final option."

"That's never an option!" the Doctor snapped at her.

"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" Martha snapped right back, "Cause it's more than that. Now, I reckon the Daleks need these twenty-seven planets for something, but what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"

"She's good." Rose noted brightly. Far too happy at this entire concept. Then again, if it was an idle threat, it _was _ good.

"Who is that?" Martha asked.

"My name's Rose. Rose Tyler."

Martha smiled, looking so very happy at this. The Doctor was surprised by such a positive reaction, after Martha's irritation at Rose during their travels together, "Oh, my God! She found you."

"**_Second transmission, internal!_**" a Dalek voice declared. Oh, she really wanted to find and destroy the speakers they were using. Davros' voice was annoying enough!

"Display!" the Supreme Dalek ordered, over those same speakers.

A second holoscreen appeared next to Martha's. It showed Captain Jack, holding something shiny in his hand with wires coming out of it. Sarah Jane was there, too. And- no way! Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler?

"Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys and girls! Are you receiving me? Don't send in your goons, or I'll set this thing off!" 'Dalek boys and girls'? That's a disturbing thought.

"He's still alive!" Rose said, stunned, "Oh my god, that- that's my mum!"

"And Mickey." the Doctor pointed out, frowning, "Captain, what are you doing?"

"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe." Jack answered, "I break this shell, the entire Crucible goes up." He really sounded far too happy at the idea of blowing himself to pieces.

"You can't!" the Doctor shouted, horrified.

"Martha!" the Master interrupted, grinning maniacally, "Use the Key!"

Before Martha even had a chance to tell him to go to hell, or something of equal loathing, she disappeared from the holoscreen, and appeared in the vault, by way of a teleport device.

The Master laughed, "Oh, they're all a bunch of useless bloody morons!" he cackled, "You really thought she'd listen to a word I said?" he demanded of Davros, still laughing, "Hate to break it to you, Miss Martha, but they don't really need the Earth that badly." The Doctor- and everyone else, including Captain Jack on the holoscreen, and even Davros- stared, dumbstruck, as he continued. "You should have offered to blow up Archangel, would have given them a little bit more trouble, because then they'd have had to remove the Earth themselves before replacing it."

Martha blinked, confused, "Why?"

"Well, we figured it out because of an alternate reality, centred around Donna Noble." unlike when the Doctor explained things like this, the Master was taking his time, talking at a rate that most humans could actually follow, "That reality's version of the Doctor died before he met you, so I never came back from my self-imposed exile. The stars started going out, without the Earth being taken. Now, I created Archangel, and it generates an empathic psyonic field around the Earth. While we were trying to find where they'd taken it, we also discovered that every other planet they stole also has a psyonic field around it of one sort or another. So, logically, there has to be another world somewhere out there with the same properties as Earth, maybe not quite perfect for their plans, but useable." he turned to Davros, "Am I right?"

Davros just stared, his mouth slightly open in surprise.

The Master grinned at this reaction, clearly taking it for a 'yes', "You might have set them back a few weeks at most, Miss Jones. Do you think that would have been worth it?"

She frowned, and shook her head. Accepting that no, it really wouldn't have been worth the Earth for a few more weeks. But at that moment, four more people were teleported in. Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey and Jackie. Several Daleks around the room converged to surround the newcomers. There was no hope of attempting to fight.

The Master rolled his eyes, "What part of stalling for time didn't you understand, Captain Undead?" he snarled, "I bought you two whole minutes, and you just stood there like an idiot!"

"But the Doctor said-" Jack started. The Doctor couldn't help the feeling of smugness at the fact he'd listened in spite of the fact that his brilliantly suicidal plan actually _would _ have worked, in a military blow-everything-up-and-ask-questions-later-if-there's-any-survivors-at-all kind of way.

"Oh, shut up!" the Master snapped, adding under his breath, "Moron."

"Why would you, of all people, want the Crucible destroyed?" Sarah Jane asked, taking a step forward and watching the Master carefully. She held her hands in the air to show the Daleks she meant no harm to them, but somehow failed to display any sense of deference by this gesture. "I mean, while you're standing on it?"

The Master smiled coldly, "What's the purpose of surviving if there's nothing left out there?" he asked, "I bet there's more interesting things to do in hell- if such a place exists- than sitting here with a bunch of demented tin-cans."

"That face... after all these years." Davros asked, finally recovering from the Master's attempt to trick him, and now focusing on Sarah Jane.

"Davros." Sarah Jane said coldly, "It's been quite a while. Sarah Jane Smith, remember?"

"Oh, this is meant to be!" Davros declared, eagerly, "The Circle of Time is closing. You were there, on Skaro, at the very beginning of my creation."

"How sentimental." the Master drawled, his tone mimicking that of a particular character in a movie Captain Jack probably loved. "You really think ancient untouchable history matters _now?_"

"The end of all approaches!" Caan cheered, "The Doctor's children will witness, as his soul will be revealed!"

"Pronouns, Caan." the Master pointed out, far too cheerfully for the situation they were in. There was no way out of this, now that all their allies had been captured. This was the end.

"The final prophecy is in place." Davros declared, "The Doctor and his children, all gathered as witnesses. Supreme Dalek, the time has come! Now... detonate the Reality Bomb!"

"I did mention pronouns, right?" the Master muttered under his breath.

"I think he's listening to Caan." Rose pointed out, looking around edgily, still trying to find a way to escape.

"Universal Reality Detonation in two-hundred rels." the Supreme Dalek's voice declared over the speakers.

"Davros, stop this!" the Doctor shouted. She'd run out of ideas, and was reduced to begging. And if it worked, she wouldn't care about the lost dignity, either! "You can't do this, please listen to me!"

"Nothing can stop the detonation, nothing and no one!" Davros gloated, ignoring her pleas, and laughing maniacally in a way that made the Master look perfectly sane.

"Might not be so bad." the Master noted, "That phrase is on my list."

"List?" Rose asked, looking at him with confusion. Oh, the Doctor had heard of the list, and really didn't believe in it. The Master had apparently compiled the list from personal experience, although most of them were common occurrences in a lot of movies as well.

"Phrases you should never say when you want a plan to go smoothly." the Master answered, "'_Nothing can stop me now_', that's pretty close to the top of the list, right after '_trust me, I know what I'm doing_', and '_what could possibly go wrong?_'"

Rose giggled nervously, "I hope you've got a point."

Almost two minutes passed, during which Davros didn't seem interested in gloating, as he was too busy anticipating his 'victory', listening to the countdown. Funny how most evil geniuses always had to have a ticking clock near the end of their plans. But then, an impossible and beautiful sound rang through the Vault.

Everyone turned to face the source of this sound, before it even became visible. It shouldn't be possible. The Crucible was shielded, even if they got through that there were other defences, the ones that had deactivated her in the first place.

"Impossible." Davros declared, stunned.

"No." the Master retorted, almost automatically, "Just-"

"Don't." the Doctor interrupted firmly, knowing perfectly well he was about to say 'very very improbable'. She was getting sick of his persistence in quoting those books! Especially since he used that particular line at every opportunity in retort to the many times she herself had used the word 'impossible'.

Jack laughed, as he heard this, but added his own opinion on the TARDIS' arrival instead of retorting, "Brilliant!"

And within seconds the TARDIS stood before them, in all her glory. Literally, it was one of those moments when the TARDIS chose to be theatrical, and actually glowed with a beautiful light as the door opened. It took a second for the Doctor to realise who was standing there.

It was the Doctor. Same lifetime, but a different face. And something else was different about him, too, but she couldn't place it. He held an unfamiliar weapon- or some other sort of device, it was difficult to tell, really, and it was obviously constructed in a hurry- as he charged out of the TARDIS, towards Davros. Right past five Daleks... and Davros wasn't exactly defenceless, either. "No!" she shouted, horrified. If this was her future self, she certainly did not want to witness his own death saving herself. Oh, now _that _ was painful for the pronouns.

Her eyes followed him, as he charged, but he did not stop. The Daleks were taken by surprise, and didn't turn very fast, which was good, but Davros was facing him. Then suddenly a howl of pain- or rage, difficult to tell- from Davros drew her attention. His, for want of a better word, chair-thing had been blasted by a powerful energy beam.

"Oops, did that hurt?" Jenny's voice asked from near the TARDIS. Everyone had been so focused on the other Doctor that they hadn't noticed Jenny. She was behind a pillar, peering out at them all, holding one of those very big guns that Rose and Jack had brought, "Hi, mum!" she added, waving.

The other Doctor reached Davros, just in time to be struck at point blank range by a bolt of electricity from the Dalek creator's hand, falling back right in front of Davros' smoking metal wheel-chair-thing. _Yes, let's all insult Davros' mode of transportation while we might be potentially witnessing our own death, shall we? Since when do I think in the plural sense? Oh, that's right, there's two of me!_

"Bad cyclops!" Jenny shouted, shooting at Davros again. This time it hit the side of his chair-thing, damaging some of the control systems.

"Activate the holding cell!" Davros shouted, "Exterminate her!" Another energy shield fell, around the other Doctor, as he managed to pick himself up, obviously not hurt too badly. But now the Doctor got a good look at him, and realised what she had thought was unusual about him. He was human- well, part-human- and there's only one way that can happen, really. Meta-crises weren't very common, usually only occurring under the most extreme of conditions- this would certainly qualify- but never as a cross between species, which this clearly had to be. No other explanation for the Time Lord with one heart.

But now, two Daleks had turned to fire on Jenny, and she had wisely ducked back out of sight. Half a second after the blasts hit the pillar and the wall behind it respectively, she reappeared on the other side of the pillar, and fired at the two Daleks with excellent aim, taking them both out.

Donna appeared in the TARDIS doorway, during this, and ran around behind where Jenny was shooting from. "What do I do?" she distantly heard Donna asking, and wasn't able to hear Jenny's answer, but it did involve pointing at Davros. Donna nodded, and both women moved at the same time, Jenny fired on the three remaining Daleks, effectively providing covering fire and a good distraction as Donna ran towards the other Doctor and the device he'd been carrying.

Jenny managed to take out two more Daleks, before she had to duck back behind the pillar again to avoid more weapons-fire. Davros recognised Donna as the more immediate threat to his own personal safety, and threw a bolt of electricity at her, sending her flying back to where Jenny had staked herself out. The Doctor smiled faintly when she saw Jenny stop her attack to pull Donna safely out of sight- it showed she had learned what was more important than fighting, and in spite of the situation she couldn't help but feel proud of Jenny right now.

"Destroy the weapon!" Davros commanded.

Jenny quickly reappeared, to fire on the one surviving Dalek, but not before it managed to obey its final order and turn the weapon- or whatever it was- into a lump of useless, twisted and smoking metal. More Daleks were arriving, now, drawn by the fire-fight and determined to exterminate the source of the problem, no doubt.

"So much for- what letter of plan are we on right now, anyway?" the Master asked casually.

The other Doctor looked up at him, half-glaring, "You tell me."

"I think it was ether D or E." the Doctor said, frowning.

"I thought that one would have been G?" the Master asked, indicating the ruined weapon. Yeah, if the Master had plans that he didn't tell her about, he might be right, otherwise, not likely.

She had opened her mouth to say as much, but then, "Guys?" Jenny's voice interrupted the pointless debate, drawing their attention to the pillar she was hiding behind, "Where'd Donna go?"

Everyone looked around as she asked this, but no one saw any sign of the red-headed human. Although in the process of looking around it was easy to tell that Captain Jack had disappeared, as well- well, if anyone was going to make a break for it and not worry about getting exterminated in the process, it would have to be him.

"Detonation in twenty rels." the Supreme Dalek's voice announced, "Nineteen. Eighteen."

Jenny peered out from her hiding place, and fired at the door those other Daleks had been entering the Vault through, locking the rest out, so only six had made it inside. And managed to shoot one more before having to take cover again. Oh, she was good at this. Which had been one of the problems when the Doctor had first encountered her, really.

Jack chose this moment to reappear, with the other very big gun, the Doctor could see, now, that it was the one Rose had brought, not Jack's own preferred weapon. Still, it allowed him to join in the Dalek-killing, and he certainly seemed to enjoy it a bit too much. Not entirely surprising, considering it was the Daleks who had caused his first death.

She noticed the Master testing his holding cell again, clearly displeased with the fact he couldn't join in the massacre. If this wasn't so serious, she'd find his behaviour very funny.

"Seven. Six. Five. Four." the Supreme Dalek's voice continued. "Three. Two. One."

The Doctor flinched as the countdown reached its end. But nothing happened. Then half a second later, an alarm began to sound. "Huh?"

Everyone else seemed to feel the same way, looking around in confusion. Even the remaining Daleks stopped their attack in their surprise. Jenny took full advantage of that to finish them off, as Jack was still recovering from another death, at that exact moment.

It was Donna's voice which drew everyone's attention to the control panel, "Closing all Zed-Neutrino relay loops using an internalised synchronous back-feed reversal loop?" she sounded like she actually knew what she was talking about, which in itself was a surprise. "That button there!" she added, brightly.

"Donna, you can't even change a plug!" the Doctor declared, stunned.

"She can just about manage to work a hairdryer." the Master added. This fact had certainly succeeded in annoying the Doctor, though she wasn't likely to explain that in a hurry, and the Master still hadn't figured it out as far as she knew. As far as she was aware, he only knew that it had annoyed her.

"D'you wanna bet, Time Girl?" she glanced at the Master, "And you can shut it and all."

"You'll suffer for this!" Davros snarled, raising his hand to use the lightening attack again. But it backfired.

"Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrogressive arc inversion." Donna all but cheered. Yes, that would work. But how did Donna, of all people, know that?

"You like that hand?" Jenny asked, stepping up next to Davros and pointing the big gun at him, "Then keep it to yourself."

Davros glared at both women, clearly wishing for a few surviving minions right about now. Too bad for him.

"How come there's two of you?" Rose suddenly asked, looking from one Doctor to the other.

"Cross-species biological metacrisis." the Doctor answered.

But the other Doctor was staring at Donna, "Two-way, by the sound of her." he pointed out.

"Oh yes." Donna said brightly, "Part Time Lord, part human, that's me. Half Doctor, half Donna!"

"Terrifying." the Master noted. Yeah, for him it probably was.

But the Doctor grinned, "The DoctorDonna! Just like the Ood said, remember? They saw it coming! The DoctorDonna!"

"Ood?" the Master asked, giving her a confused look.

"Ice planet." she answered simply.

"Oh." and he dropped that line of questioning, though she got the impression that he was sulking at not having known about this beforehand.

"Holding cells deactivated." Donna declared, "And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you lot! Get to work!"

x x x

It was a truly amazing experience, for Donna. Her mind was flooded with new ideas and possibilities. It was like the entire universe had been opened up to her and she really could do absolutely anything. It barely took a fraction of her newfound intellect to know what to do with these controls. They were advanced, the Time Lord memories told her this, but certainly easy enough to follow. Logical patterns that made it all so simple, even though she'd never seen a machine like this before.

Daleks all over the ship were swarming towards them, to try to break into the Vault. To try to stop them. Pre-emptive strike time.

She turned a few dials, and flicked a couple of switches. She couldn't _see _ the Daleks, but between the numbers around this terminal and new senses she was having difficulty processing even now, she was completely aware of their locations and intentions. And turn that dial there. Haha!

"Aaand spin." she laughed. Both Doctors looked at her, surprised. Reverse the power flow, turn the dial back, "Aaand the other way."

"What did you do?" the Doctor asked her. The original one, the female one. Temporarily. She suddenly understood the reason for the Doctor's choice to remain female, and thought it was absolutely hilarious. Practical, but hilarious.

"Trip-stitch circuit-breaker in the psycho-kinetic threshold manipulator." she answered, "Covering a fifty-foot radius."

"But that's brilliant!" the new Doctor said happily. _Yeah, I am aren't I?_

"Why did we never think of that?" the original Doctor asked, slightly stunned, and shooting her counterpart a look of mild confusion. He didn't have an answer for her, but Donna did.

"Because you two, you were just Time Lords, you dumbos!" she said, with gleeful emphasis on the playful insult, "Lacking that little bit of human, that gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two wouldn't dream of in a million years! Ah, the universe has been waiting for me! Now... let's send that trip-stitch all over the ship! Did I ever tell you?" she grinned, holding up her hands and waving her fingers, "Best temp in Chiswick, hundred words per minute!"

The new Doctor laughed, a short bark that showed both glee at the idea and some level of self-derision for not coming up with it himself.

"Time to send these twenty-seven planets back home!" Donna declared, "Activate Magnetron!" Good word for it, it used magnetic fields, but she wasn't sure that was actually what the Daleks had named it, or just the right word in her own mind for it. Either way, both Doctors knew what she meant and the three of them worked together seamlessly to prepare the system.

"Stop this at once!" Davros shouted, but when Donna glanced up for an instant she saw both Jenny and the Master had weapons aimed at Davros.

"Give me an excuse." she heard the Master say, a bit too eagerly. Davros has the sense not to try anything. Smarter than she'd thought.

In spite of this, Donna kept the majority of her focus on the machine the three of them were working on. Now she had a bit extra brain-power, she could afford to notice other things, and still concentrate at the same time. It was brilliant! _No, that's the Doctor's word, need to get my own_. And now the magnetron was primed and ready, she looked up at the two Doctors with a bright smile, "Ready?" without either of them needing to speak, she could tell the answer was yes. She put her hands on the controls, "And reverse!" and pulled them back to activate it at the same time as the other two activated the controls on their sides of the console.

The planets were sent back one by one. Each needed to be dealt with individually, and the controls were all over the terminal- as if it was meant to be controlled by about four Daleks. As they each sent one home they called out its name, so the other two would know their overall progress. There was a certain exhilaration to saving the universe, but somehow sending these worlds home, saving them individually, felt even better. It really was fun, she was enjoying it far more than she knew she should, considering they were still in the middle of a Daleks stronghold.

"We need more power!" the new Doctor pointed out. Power would be difficult, it was on a constant feed, like the machine had a battery that needed to recharge before it could continue... so time, that was all. That was annoying, too, wouldn't it all be so much simpler if they could just find another power source, rather than sitting around waiting?

The original Doctor took out her sonic screwdriver, and started working on the power feeds, to enhance their recharge rate. Or there's that.

"Is anyone gonna tell us what's going on?" Rose asked, sounding both blatantly confused and just a bit amused by the whole situation.

Donna looked up at her, and began to explain, "She-" pointing to the original Doctor, "-poured all her regeneration energy into the spare hand, I touched the hand, he-" pointing to the new Doctor, "-grew out of that but that fed back into me. But, it just stayed dormant in my head till the synapses got that little extra spark, kicking them into life." she raised her voice and called across the room, "Thank you, Davros!" she received a glare from Davros for that, "Part human... part Time Lord. And I got the best bit of the Doctor." Both of them looked at her, when she said this, and the original Doctor actually opened her mouth to say something that Donna could just _sense _ was inappropriate. That wouldn't be good, especially with Jack leaning over her shoulder- oh yes, the Time Lord memories included him alright- so she quickly continued. "I got his mind!"

"So there's three of you?" Sarah Jane asked, still confused.

"Three Doctors?" Rose added, sounding more awed than confused.

"I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." Jack pointed out, as if that fact wasn't already obvious. And while, Donna wouldn't mind Jack thinking that sort of thing about just her, she had no idea what he saw in the pair of stick insects.

"That's why the timelines were converging on you." the original Doctor pointed out, "You're completely unique. Human being with a Time Lord brain."

Davros turned on the only other Dalek in the room- open casing, in chains, wasn't a threat, so Jack and Jenny had left it alone- and practically snarled as he spoke, "But you promised me, Dalek Caan! Why did you not foresee this?"

The Master laughed, as Dalek Caan giggled insanely, "Oh, but he did." he gloated, leaning forward with one hand on the back of the broken chair-thing Davros resided in, "Did you not _listen _ to him?"

"Something's been manipulating the timelines for ages." the Doctor agreed, "Getting Donna Noble to the right place at the right time."

"This would always have happened." Dalek Caan answered, "I only helped, Doctor."

"You betrayed the Daleks!" Davros snarled.

"I _saw _ the Daleks." Dalek Caan declared, "What we have done, throughout time and space, I saw the truth of us, Creator, and I decreed 'No more!'"

"I like him." the Master said, indicating Dalek Caan with a nod, but there was something malicious about the grin he wore as he said it. He was up to something... again. And some of the Doctor's memories of the Master before Donna had met him filtered through to her consciousness. He liked to play God, and approved of Caan's choice of words, as well.

"Heads up!" Jack shouted, raising the weapon he held to aim up above them. Donna looked up, and saw a Dalek with red casing descending from a hole that had appeared in the ceiling. Who put that there, and why hadn't it sealed off with the rest of the Vault entrances?

"Davros! You have betrayed us!" the red Dalek shouted.

"It was Dalek Caan." Davros defended, immediately.

"The Vault will be purged! You will all be exterminated!" the red Dalek declared. Then it fired at the new Doctor, missing him- although he did land on his bony backside in his haste to avoid the blast- and hitting the controls they had been using to send the planets home. That wasn't good, now what were they going to do about the rest of that rather important project?

Jack charged up his weapon, and shouted at the red Dalek, "Like I was saying. Feel this!" and he fired. It hit its target and the red Dalek blew up quite spectacularly.

"We've lost the Magnetron!" the original Doctor said examining the remains of the controls, and rolling her eyes, "And there's only one planet left." she laughed derisively- at fate itself, Donna thought- before adding, "Guess which one? But we can use the TARDIS." and she ran off. Right into the TARDIS, without any further explanation. Donna would have complained, if she didn't now know the full capabilities of a TARDIS, thanks to her newfound Time Lord memories. Oh, she loved this new being half Time Lord thing.

Meanwhile, the new Doctor worked on the remains of the controls, to stabilise the Earth for travel. And told everyone else what he was doing, while he was at it, "Holding Earth stability! Maintaining atmospheric shell."

"The prophecy must complete!" Dalek Caan cried.

"Don't listen to him!" Davros snapped, but no one listened to Davros.

Caan continued, "I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Doctor!"

The new Doctor looked up at Caan, seeming to genuinely consider his words, "He's right. Cause with or without a Reality Bomb, this Dalek Empire's big enough to slaughter the cosmos. They've got to be stopped!"

Donna shook her head, "Just wait for the Doctor." she told him.

"I am the Doctor!" he replied, working on the controls, and giving a running commentary for the other humans, "Maximising Dalekanium power feeds! Blasting them back!"

Donna watched this, not sure what to make of it. Genocide was always a very bad concept, even before she'd had the Doctor's influence, and the Doctor had been almost obcessively opposed to the idea. Or any violence whatsoever, although even she had allowed the Master permission to kill Daleks, and hadn't complained about Jack and Jenny shooting them. Still, genocide bad, right?

"Ha!" the Master shouted, gleefully. When Donna looked up at him, she saw that he was looking at Dalek Caan, rather than at the rest of them, "Pronouns, I get it now!"

Explosions rang out through the crucible, as the Daleks began to explode, one by one. Davros' chair-thing was old enough to use more primitive metals than Dalekanium, and Dalek Caan's casing was dead so it wouldn't react. Only those two survived the slaughter. "What have you done?" the original Doctor shouted, running back out of the TARDIS, staring at the new Doctor in horror.

The new Doctor looked at her, coldly. He didn't seem to understand her reaction. "Fulfilling the prophecy." he said, perfectly calm about it, and all.

"Do you know what you've done?" the original Doctor shouted, angrily, but she didn't have time to argue about it really, as the Crucible was shaking itself apart now, and they needed to leave, "Now get in the TARDIS!" she ordered, "Everyone! All of you, inside! Run! In! In! In! In!"

The new Doctor didn't hesitate at that order, they really did need to leave now. Donna followed him into the TARDIS, and she was followed closely by Martha. She turned to watch as the new Doctor called out names as the others entered the TARDIS, as well. "Sarah Jane! Rose! Jackie! Jenny! Jack! Mickey!"

"Master, what are you doing? Come on!" she heard the original Doctor shout, still outside. Then, she continued, the last thing Donna expected her to say, "Davros! Come with me! I promise I can save you."

The Master entered the TARDIS at that moment, and pointed out the obvious, "As if he would want to be saved by his greatest enemy." his voice was subdued, sounding neither intentionally cruel nor cheerful in any way. It seemed wrong, to Donna. Jack, Martha, and the new Doctor all did double-takes at his tone, as well. Almost funny to watch their faces in that instant, really.

"Never forget, Doctor." Davros shouted, "You did this! I name you, forever... you are the Destroyer of the Worlds!" Using his last breath to spite the Doctor, rather than accepting her offer and choosing to live.

A second later, the Doctor entered the TARDIS. She actually looked upset at Davros' refusal! But she quickly returned to her normal exuberance, as she ran over to the console, pressed two buttons and pushed up one lever. "And... off we go!" Within seconds, they were in orbit around the Earth, far enough away not to be hit by the explosion as the Crucible went up in flames.

"But what about the Earth?" Sarah Jane asked, "It's stuck in the wrong part of space!"

But the Doctor was already working on the controls, barely sparing the breath to say, "I'm on it."

x x x


	30. Broken Prophecy

x x x

**Chapter 30: Broken Prophecy**

x x x

Towing the Earth had been fun. Complicated, but that made these things even more exciting. Although in retrospect, the Doctor regretted letting Jack have a part in flying the TARDIS. He had somehow managed to make it look obscene... and Donna just had to go and compliment him for it, too!

Another thing she noticed in retrospect, now that the Earth was safe, was that K9 had failed to annoy the Master. And K9 actually had called her 'Master' in spite of the fact she was female. The tin-dog usually addressed females as 'Mistress'.

Right now, the Doctor was preparing to drop off all her friends at their respective homes, setting the TARDIS controls to land somewhere suitable for Sarah Jane, Jack and Martha to all get home from without having to make three separate stops. Lazy, she'd admit, but also practical.

"What's wrong with him?" Jack asked, distracting her. She looked up from the console to see that Jack was watching the Master.

He was silent. Completely still, sitting up straight on the edge of the couch, staring across the console room as if he could see something that wasn't there. As if his mind was elsewhere. He wasn't even tapping, at all. Even when the drums got to their quietest- according to his word at least- he would still tap when he wasn't concentrating. Usually a hand, but occasionally a foot. Right now, nothing.

Warily, she approached him, "Master?"

No answer. Now everyone was paying attention to this, instead of celebrating as they rightly should. Some showed concern- the other Doctor, Rose, Jenny, and Donna- the others showed something more akin to fear, as if they believed he was up to something.

"He's been like that since we left the Crucible." Jack noted.

The other Doctor also warily approached the Master, now, glancing at her, as if asking what she thought. Neither knew what to make of it, "Master?" she repeated, louder, standing right next to him now, and waving a hand in front of his face. Still nothing.

She leaned over and whispered in his ear, the only word in the universe that was one hundred percent guaranteed to get his attention if he was in any way aware of his surroundings at all. His real name.

The Master looked up at her, sharply, meeting her eyes, but she couldn't read anything in his gaze, "It doesn't fit." he said bluntly, as if she should know what he was talking about.

"What doesn't fit?" she asked, gently, trying to encourage him to keep talking.

"The path. It's broken."

"Is this making sense to anyone here?" Jack asked, suddenly. He was the closest of the others. Least afraid, most likely, seeing as he couldn't stay dead anyway.

"Not really." the other Doctor said, shrugging.

The Doctor glared at her other self, before returning her attention to the Master, "Broken, how?"

"I broke it." his gaze, still fixed on her, hardened for an instant, "I blame you, though." She held a hand to her chest indignantly, in an innocent 'who, me?' gesture, and he let out a short bark of a laugh that couldn't possibly be accused of concealing any genuine humour, "I never could resist a pretty face."

The other Doctor snorted at that, "No idea what he's talking about, I'm just as good-looking."

"Yeah, you're an equally pointy pair of stick-insects." Donna snarked, the derision to their vanity perfectly clear.

"Some people like that sort of thing." Jack pointed out.

"Can we at least pretend to be paying attention to why the Master's freaking out on us?" the Doctor asked, giving the others who had been speaking a half-hearted glare.

"You're right." the other Doctor said, nodding, "We've always known the Master's tastes- he tried to flirt with Ushas, after all."

"Master?" the Doctor asked, choosing to ignore their audience for now. She especially tried to ignore what her other self had just reminded her of, she took it as an insult that he was comparing her to that despicable woman, even if only for the fact that they currently shared a gender, "What do you mean, the path is broken?"

"Pain and death." the Master answered simply, "Payment, in advance."

"Payment for what?" the Doctor persisted. She didn't understand what he was saying, but she hoped if he gave enough of these cryptic clues she could put them all together to make some sort of sense. Or better yet, if she talked to him long enough he'd stop deliberately annoying her, and start making sense on his own.

"Spoilers." he said flatly, and smiled as he said that. His eyes glittered, as if he'd just thought of something else of great importance, "That needs fixing and all."

"I'm still not following you." the Doctor said, trying to remain calm. He was being infuriating right now.

"Songs and stars." he was looking right through her, now, instead of meeting her gaze, "Should already be."

"Why are you suddenly being so cryptic?" the other Doctor asked, looking annoyed more than concerned, his arms folded as if he was trying to look the part of an authority figure here. It wasn't working well.

The Master's gaze turned on him, "It was all there in his mind. How could I possibly resist?"

The Doctor hit her own forehead with the heel of her hand, as she realised what he was talking about, "You didn't!"

"Dalek Caan?" Rose asked, suddenly, "You tried to read his mind?"

"Succeeded." the Master answered, meeting her eyes as well, now. He smiled at her, as if seeing something no one else could in her that he thought was a good thing. Whether anyone else would see it as good or not was debateable. He didn't say anything else to her, though.

"What, you mean all that prophecy stuff Caan was going on about?" Martha asked warily.

The Master's gaze turned on her, and he seemed startled at what he saw, but then looked away from her. "I don't like this." he said, frowning, "There's too much."

The Doctor reached out a hand to touch his face, but he immediately leaned back, away from it, his eyes watching that hand as if it was the bane of all existence. She slowly lowered her hand again, frowning at him, her eyes asking the question, rather than words, 'why not?'

"You'd shatter." he said simply, staring into her eyes but giving nothing away, "I was already broken. The drums. They're silent now. This is worse. Shadows and screaming. Rebirth of death itself." He turned away from her again, but when his eyes landed on Jack, he stared for almost a minute before looking away from him as well, frowning, "I'm sorry." he said quietly.

"What?" Jack asked, confused.

But the Master didn't give an explanation, only repeating, "I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about?" Jack demanded.

"Your future." the Master said, seeming very determined not to look at Jack now. His eyes darted to the Doctor, then her clone, before returning to the floor at Jack's feet, "They would understand... you won't need to be alone."

Jack scowled at that, "Do I even want to know what the hell you're talking about?"

"Hell. I thought that before. No, you do not want to know." the Master said, still not meeting Jack's eyes, "Already too late, when it's not happened yet. Fixed time. I would change it if I could."

"This is seriously disturbing." Donna pointed out, "I mean, if he's seen whatever it was that drove Caan mad, doesn't that mean it'll destroy his mind?"

"In theory." the Master said, turning to look at Donna. Something in the way his gaze shifted was eerily reminiscent of the way Sky had turned to look at whomever she was mimicking, a very sharp turn of the head, and a stare that looked right through the soul. When he met Donna's eyes, he went very still, staring for several seconds, not even breathing. Then suddenly he stood, walked purposefully to the control console, and started pressing buttons.

The restraint band on his wrist glowed brightly, but he didn't pay any attention to it, as if he didn't feel the pain at all. Instead he pulled a piece of the machinery out- the Doctor didn't see what, he kept it out of her line of sight- and turned and left the room. Not another word from him.

"That was worrying." Donna said, eyeing the door the Master had left through.

"Tell me about it." the Doctor said, frowning.

"Um, I think this is bad." the other Doctor pointed out, "He just took the Chameleon Arch."

x x x

The two Doctors, followed by Jack and Rose, ran after the Master. The others remained in the control room, either too scared of getting lost to follow, or in Donna's case, to make sure the Master didn't double back somehow and do something evil.

The TARDIS was being deliberately confusing, Rose thought. The corridors went every way but the right way, she was already hopelessly lost, and got the feeling so was (were?) the Doctor(s?).

"This is ridiculous." Jack declared, as they paused to catch their breath, "Your ship is conspiring against you!"

"She is not!" both Doctors snapped at once.

"Where would he go? Why look for him if we can guess where he might be heading?" Rose asked, also gasping for breath.

Both Doctors looked at each other for only a second, then spoke together once more, "The lab."

"That's getting creepy." Rose informed them, as the four of them took off again.

"I like it." Jack noted too brightly. Rose did _not _ want to know what he was thinking... unless... no, definitely not, not Jack's thoughts, never! Maybe she could think something in that direction on her own, though. Maybe.

Once they had a goal in mind, it didn't take them long to find the lab. Rose had never been in here, and stared around in amazement. It was huge! Normally, you hear the word lab, you think beakers and test-tubes on a small desk in a pokey little room. Sure, there was a desk with that sort of thing on it, but there was also a whole load of big machines that did who knew what, more desks covered in various smaller bits of machinery, and stuff for fixing and making yet more machinery, this lab had everything short of a particle accelerator. Actually, off to the right disappeared into darkness, so for all she knew there was one over that way.

No kitchen sink, though. Just normal sinks, near where the chemicals were.

The Master was at one of the machinery-strewn tables a short distance into the room, dissecting this thing the male Doctor had called a Chameleon Arch. Ripping the machine apart, using something that produced sparks to mutilate the hapless device. Rose really hoped it wasn't something they needed to fly, or they could be in trouble.

She noticed the male Doctor gesture for the female to go ahead, as if believing she had a better chance of reasoning with the Master than he did. Given earlier conversation points, which suggested that the Master preferred females, she wouldn't be surprised. She did wonder if either of the Doctors would tell her who Ushas was, though.

The female Doctor walked forward, cautiously approaching the Master. He tensed noticeably when he heard her footsteps, but didn't look at her, "Nearly finished." he said, as if this should be a good thing. Rose wasn't sure.

"What are you doing?" the female Doctor asked warily.

"Helping." was all the answer the Master gave.

"How is stealing the Chameleon Arch and- what exactly _are _ you doing to it, anyway?" distractible. Still the same Doctor, then. Definitely.

The male Doctor had also approached the other two Time Lords, and picked up a piece of discarded circuitry from the floor. "Why is the genetic assimilation coding circuit over here?"

The female Doctor looked at him, when he said this, then scanned the floor. Rose and Jack also looked around, to see several important-looking components on the ground. "He's either really good at turning machines into things they shouldn't be, or he just felt like breaking it." Jack suggested. "Or, it could be both."

The Master, completely ignoring Captain Jack, picked up the much reduced and altered device- which must be finished now, whatever he'd been doing to it- and made to leave the room. "Just where do you think you're going?" the male Doctor demanded, stepping in his way.

"Where I damned well please." the Master snarled. Something in his eyes showed hatred, but it seemed to recede almost as soon as he'd spoken. Now he just glared, but without much genuine emotion behind it.

The female Doctor quickly stepped up behind the Master, and placed a hand on his arm in what looked like it was meant to be a calming gesture, "Please tell us." she said in a gentle tone that made Rose genuinely believe the Doctor- both of them, if the look on the male Doctor's face was anything to go by- really cared for the Master, however evil he may be, or have been in the past.

"I can't. Yet." was his answer. He looked at the female Doctor for a second, then at the male Doctor, and seemed to think for a few more seconds, before speaking. "Kill Jack for me." he smiled faintly, a strong sense of suggestion in his tone and one hand reached up to touch the side of the female Doctor's face, "Then we can talk." but Rose spotted the calculating and deliberate glint in his eyes as they darted back to the male Doctor to include him in the definition of the word 'we'.

And while they were both too stunned to stop him, he quickly swept out of the room and disappeared down the corridor.

Five whole seconds later, Jack burst out laughing, "You're so gullible, Doctor!" and he turned to run after the Master, to try to catch him before he did anything dangerous. Though Rose was of the opinion that the Master could probably have chosen to do a lot more damage, by now, if he'd really wanted to.

She smiled at the two Doctors, "You know he probably only said that to get you to let him go, right?"

The female Doctor regained her composure first, "Of course."

"I certainly hope so." the male Doctor put in, his voice a bit higher pitched than usual.

"He's not our type, really." the female one added, sounding a bit like she was trying to convince herself of that as much as anything else. But then she grabbed Rose's hand, and flashed that brilliant smile Rose's way- the same smile, even if it was on a different face, that he had used to tell her to run with him the first time they met- and they took off after Jack and the Master. She heard the male Doctor stumble over his own feet before following them.

x x x

Shades of blood and tears. Ice burned away the fire, and turned it back into itself. He saw it all, the vast glory of time. What should have been did not fit what was. What will be and what must be parted ways. He needed to change what was happening now, to fix what never was broken.

It made so little sense, even to his mind. He could see the pieces, but couldn't make them fit.

Threads of gold still woven through the future that had yet to be set. She understood, but she didn't comprehend. He had to help her, the golden fire would freeze her if he didn't.

One constant. Fire.

Veins of black, a burned soul shattered and dead now, single-minded purpose feeding on the fire and choking its potential. The black had pulled so much out of place, and yet it might have worked if he hadn't cut the threads of blood. But now. Death wanted payment in tears.

"Master?"

Was this reality? Felt like a dream.

He focused on the physical, it hurt. He turned eyes that saw so little now on the Doctor. He was standing in the control room once more. Tears would burn, but that didn't mean everyone else had to pay the Doctor's price. He could help that.

"What are you doing, Master?"

He forced a smile, "The dead keep it." a quote. Would the Doctor understand? Did it matter? He saw it, and needed to show the way, but it was far too soon for others to know.

"I don't understand."

"You're not meant to." he frowned, "You will, but not yet."

Other voices, so irrelevant. The Captain- not his name, self-appointed title, so young but the human dared pretend to their status, and what's worse he might be right to- was insulting him again. Words meant nothing. The light in his soul, threads of gold binding him like shackles, unbreakable. For now.

"You will die. Only a matter of how and when." that caught the human's attention, and shut him up.

He didn't want to see what must be done, but it would have to happen eventually. He turned slowly to look at the rest of the Doctor's 'children of time'. The phrase felt wrong to him, but Caan had seen it, and it certainly sounded pompous enough for prophecy.

Sarah Jane Smith. So much life left to live, and only afforded from abandonment. He saw easily what would have become of her had she stayed with the Doctor, so much of her life ago. There wouldn't be so much of that life to have lived. Dominoes, pulling others down with her if she had been allowed to stay. She was safe, so long as she chose what she inevitably must. She would repay the favour, abandon the Doctor in return. That was her gift to the price that the Doctor must pay.

Jackie Tyler. Happily ever after so far from consequence. Simple, human, nothing to fate.

Mickey Smith. There were moments in his future best not known. But nothing to do with the Doctor. Only the Doctor really mattered.

Rose, he had seen already. And the half-human, a weak echo of the Doctor. Fascinating future. A mortal life, but so much more.

Martha Jones. So sad, only pain and memories. Those memories could have been so much darker, but they would have given her more than they could have taken. She was owed that much. He would fix that. Not difficult, pull at the right threads, chance is easy to turn. Just a name, and for humans that was simple.

Jenny. Another with no true name, she helped choose this one, it couldn't hurt in the same way. But... there was no way to bring her back to the path they needed to follow. He had taught her too much, she would never break as she was meant to. That was a good thing, but how to make it fit? Gold, again, he could give her that, but would she want to be bound that way?

He needed to know it all, to choose the most direct path. Now he turned to the Doctor, to find the answer to the last- most important- question. She stood right in front of him when he turned her way, "I see so much, now. Only one thing is hidden from me." he said softly, so only she would hear.

Forcing his mind to lucidity for long enough to face the Doctor directly, to see her with his own eyes and not with the echoes of time that made her future look like ancient history in his mind. He stepped closer, reaching a hand up to the side of her face. It took great effort to control himself, holding back the vast eternities that he could see now, so she wouldn't break under their weight.

The Doctor didn't back away. Never ran from him. Only for him. He made the connection, shared the memories, felt her memories of the same events. Dual sight, both sides at once. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall into that moment with him.

x x x

_It was true that she had accused the Master's suggested method of being primitive, but that was a relative concept, and they both knew that she would have outright refused to try the _ most _ primitive alternative. Not that it was possible, anyway. Time Lords had, for many generations, been incapable of reproducing in the natural way. Some called it a curse, but others had suggested that it was a genetic flaw that, given time and research, could be eliminated. They had not been given the time, the war had seen to that._

_The Master had converted a corner of the medical facilities on board the Valiant into a laboratory with the sole purpose of abusing Earth technology to be capable of using blood samples from both Time Lords to genetically engineer a new one. He had claimed- and the Doctor was highly dubious of this but had not been allowed the opportunity to check for herself- that no technology on Earth could be converted into anything vaguely suitable for the process of actually _ growing _ a child, though._

_He had taken sadistic glee in the Doctor's horrified reaction to the suggestion that- if they were to attempt this- she would have to carry the child to term herself. That had been the main point in their argument that she had hesitated over. Her explanation for wanting the disruptor collar removed had been related to this, as well._

_She stood, now, at the far end of this very small lab space pressing her palm to one arm defensively, where the blood sample had been taken, and watching the Master working on the genetic manipulation. Never did like needles, even without accounting for the obvious knowledge that blood samples from a Time Lord were- for want of a better swear-word- bloody dangerous things to leave laying around._

_"Why do you want this?" she asked idly, scanning the room itself. She had made a habit during her time on the Valiant of searching every room she found herself in for potential weapons to use against the Master. She always rejected those that were potentially fatal, and had yet to find anything less that could incapacitate him._

_"I told you before." he said, not looking up, "Even your presence quiets the drums. If there were more psychically capable Time Lords around, I might actually be able to think clearly again." That in itself was worrying, the suggestion that he was fully aware of exactly how his mental state affected his judgement. He knew, but just didn't seem to care about those he hurt._

_And he didn't really want a child, not even an heir. He planned to live forever, after all, so he had no need of that form of vanity._

_"Why do _ you _ want it?" he asked. From this angle, she could just see his smirk when he turned his head in her direction, even though he didn't take his eyes away from his work, "Guilt?"_

_"That is one reason." she admitted, her voice cold like ice, making it clear that she did not appreciate it when he kept bringing up the fact that she had been responsible for the destruction of their homeworld, "Not the only one." Her eyes landed on a series of small bottles of various drugs. She was just close enough to read their labels, and while most were useless, one row of them- while a relatively weak calming medication on humans- would be a powerful and otherwise harmless sedative for a Time Lord._

_She carefully paced the room, watching the Master to ensure he didn't see when she picked up one of the tiny bottles as she passed it. Very briefly glancing at it to ensure she had the right one- wouldn't do to have picked up one of the anaesthetics next to it, those would kill him- she then continued walking over to the far side of the room._

_"Nervous?" he asked, noticing her odd behaviour, but mistaking its meaning._

_She turned to face him again, staring at him indignantly, as if he was an idiot for even asking, "Wouldn't you be, in my position?"_

_"Hmm. Probably." he admitted, but then he returned his full attention to the computer._

_The Doctor took the opportunity to pick up a needle and syringe. While she watched the Master working, she drew up the sedative behind her back. Very carefully. Wouldn't do to prick her finger and get even a drop of this stuff into her own blood. It would knock her out for a few minutes, and then he'd know exactly what she had been up to._

_With her chosen weapon now ready, she approached him, leaning over the back of the chair he sat in, to watch what he was doing. She spent a few minutes casually making suggestions which he ignored, ranging from hair colour (ginger, of course) to attempting to isolate and write out his mental instability from the DNA samples._

_It took him another ten minutes to finish this, and finally he leaned back, looking proud of himself. "I do hate bio-engineering, but it had its uses."_

_"Yes, we all know you prefer lasers to all other forms of science." she said snidely._

_He laughed, one of those evil maniacal cackling laughs, which was exactly what she had been waiting for. Rule number twenty, but obviously he had never read _ that _ list. While he was distracted by his own ego, she quickly stabbed the needle into his neck, and injected the sedative._

x x x

_The Master woke up to find himself tied to the chair in the medical facility of the Valiant. Right in the middle of the room, out of reach of anything that could even pretend to be useful to him. He tried to twist his hands out of the bindings, but found that they were quite secure._

_Something was wrong. The Earth was in the wrong place, relative to its sun. Turned back, by about... no. Oh no. No no no no! She didn't! She broke the bloody paradox machine!_

_He looked around to discover that he was completely alone. No Doctor, no minions, no one. Some of the tables and 'beds' usually used for genuine medical reasons had actually been moved towards the walls, so he couldn't get to them from here. She was thorough, that much was certain. And even more annoying, he couldn't see his lab computer from here, either._

_All but one step of that project had been completed, and the Doctor had been watching the entire thing, she knew- she had to know- that if she wanted to she could finish it herself. And why wouldn't she? Between her overdeveloped morals and her guilt at destroying Gallifrey, that had to outweigh any desire to spite him personally, right?_

_Come to think of it, she didn't seem to show that level of spite, anyway. Just because you're metaphorically heartless doesn't mean you should assume the same of others, and she certainly hadn't shown genuine hatred for him. If she had hated him, why accept this suggestion in the first place? Back to the guilt._

_Now he was just driving himself even further from sanity with these circular questions. He knew it, so he stopped thinking about that, and set to work trying to move his chair towards that table to his right with sharp objects on it. Get a scalpel in his hand, he could cut the bindings and hunt down that treacherous woman._

_He was almost halfway to the table of sharp objects when the Doctor entered the room, carefully closing the door behind her. She smiled brightly at him, "Why am I not surprised?" she asked, glancing at the table of sharp objects._

_He glared at her, but she didn't say anything else. Simply walked over to the computer, and started doing something he couldn't see. After a few minutes, she took a disk out of the computer and placed it into a small box along with a couple of other things he couldn't see from here. The box was set over away from the computer, and she looked up at him._

_"I broke your paradox, UNIT will be here soon, and I don't want humans finding this information. I've already formatted the hard-drive, but you can never be too careful." With that minimal explanation, she took out his laser screwdriver, which she must have stolen while he was unconscious, and destroyed the computer itself._

_He frowned, watching her carefully, but she showed no inclination to explain any more than that. It wasn't that he cared, not really (keep telling yourself that), but he did want to know what she had done with their potential child._

_But now she approached him, and all he saw was a flash of silver before she had already done one of the worst things he could imagine. He recognised the Arcadian restraint band a second after it had been bound to his arm, and he looked up at her with genuine fear. "No." he whispered._

_"Don't move." she ordered simply, before removing the other bindings. He didn't dare disobey. Once she had untied him she stepped back, and said, "Now stand up." with a resentful glare, he did as she commanded. She pulled her hair away from the back of her neck, and turned her back on him, still watching him over her shoulder, "Remove the disruptor collar."_

_Once again, he obeyed, but as he did so, he asked, "What do you intend to do with me?"_

_"I can't trust anyone else to watch you. You're my responsibility now." she said, smiling as she turned back to face him, and took the disruptor collar from his hands. He could literally feel as she reached out with her mind, testing her senses and stretching her consciousness after being confined for so long, finally free again._

_"So what, you're just going to... keep me?" he asked, sneering at the very idea. It made him feel ill to think that he was now the prisoner here._

_"Well you've proved that you can't be left to your own devices, now haven't you?" she asked brightly._

_He glared coldly at her. Just because he didn't live up to her unattainable concept of morality, didn't mean he should be trapped like this. It did nothing for his self-image to be forced to obey her every word. He was supposed to be the Master, not her pet!_

_When he failed to answer, she asked, "And where did you hide my sonic screwdriver?"_

_With a slight flick of his left wrist, the sonic device fell out of the sleeve of his suit jacket. It was a very useful little hiding place, where he had kept the laser screwdriver before he had taken over the world. Dimensionally transcendental, just like the pockets, but hidden inside his sleeve so if someone tried patting him down for weapons or searching his pockets, they'd never find it._

_He held the sonic device up for the Doctor to see, and she took it from him with a nod and a smile, "Sneaky." she said, as she pocketed it. Her tone sounded like one genuine admiration, and he fought back the urge to smile at the compliment. He was a prisoner, now, and he had no intention of letting her think he accepted this fact. He watched, wearing his cold and expressionless mask, as she carefully picked up that little box of disks, then held out her free hand to him, "Come with me, Master."_

_What choice did he have? He hesitated at the order, and felt a sharp pain run up from his arm right, through his entire nervous system, spiking most sharply at his temples and driving him to his knees. He cried out at the pain, but it only lasted a fraction of a second. The instant the pain was gone, he stood again, and with the coldest and most hateful glare he was capable of, he took her hand and allowed her to lead him out of the room._

x x x

"What did you do?" he asked, breaking the direct telepathic link and tilting his head to one side, staring into her eyes. He saw her past and future in those eyes... fond memories of home, friends lost long ago, so much pain and death... but more importantly, her future... there was always hope... if it worked, if he could fix what he had broken by loving her. "Did you use it or...?" he didn't dare suggest she might have destroyed it. She wouldn't, couldn't, it was against her nature.

"No." she said, and he saw her flinch as the rage flew through his mind at that one word. She quickly spoke again, trying to calm him, "I kept it. With the disks."

On hearing that, he nodded, backing down and retreating from reality again. It took so much effort to focus, now. There was too much to see and feel in this new silence.

Time flew. An instant passed, twenty-six minutes and thirty-seven-point-two seconds exactly.

Doors opened to the light. Warmth and life. Earth. He looked up and watched, not hearing, as the Doctor bade farewell to Martha and the Captain. And Mickey Mouse. Doctor's own insult to the human, didn't suit him really. Torchwood could break the best. His own choice, though.

A shadow passed through his mind, and he looked up at Jenny once more, "Which do you see as worse." he asked her, "Imprisonment, or a loved one's pain?"

"The second one." Jenny said, frowning at him. So like the Doctor, but she was worried by what he'd just asked.

"Good." he said simply, turning away from her, not wanting to see what she thought to this. He liked her, he really did.

"What's he mean by that?" Donna asked, just as confused. Usually confusing and unsettling people would make him smile. Not now.

"Wish I knew." Jenny said, distant. She was thinking about it. She really shouldn't.

"No. You don't." he said.

x x x

"Threads of gold." the Master whispered, as he hovered just outside the TARDIS, watching the others. Rose and Jackie were going home. Jackie was being very vocal about the location they had landed in, in this reality, but Donna tuned out most of it. The two Doctors were there as well, and Jenny lurked behind the Master in the doorway of the TARDIS.

Donna glanced at him, confused.

"She sings." the Master said simply, as if that would explain. It really didn't.

"I think I get it." Rose said, however, "The Bad Wolf."

The Master nodded, "Even Yana heard her name." Another cryptic sentence, which neither Donna nor Rose seemed to get. Jackie didn't particularly count, being one of those sane people who rarely ever could understand what a Time Lord is talking about even when they're trying to make sense.

The Doctors both looked startled by the Master's words, though. But it didn't last. More important things, like saying everything they wanted to before their time ran out. Again.

"Hold on." Rose said, finally realising what was going on, "This is... the parallel universe, right?"

"Yeah." the original Doctor said, nodding, "Back home."

"And the walls of the world are closing again." Donna added, "Now that the Reality Bomb never happened. It's dimensional retroclosure. See, I really get that stuff now." she could literally feel the stare, and turned to face the Master, who was giving her a very incredulous look, "Don't look at me like that!"

"No, but... I spent all that time trying to find you." Rose protested, "I'm not going back now!"

"But you've got to." the original Doctor said, "Cause we saved the universe, but at a cost." she looked at the new Doctor, and her gaze turned cold as she did, "And the cost is him. He destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide."

"Can't baby-sit more than one?" the Master asked, his tone both cold and joking at the same time, "What did he do that's worse than you?"

The original Doctor glared at him, "I wouldn't have-"

"Easy to say when someone else did it for you." the Master pointed out, "Scapegoat."

"Drop it." the original Doctor hissed at him.

"Not arguing with your actions. Just your logic." the Master said, shrugging innocently. He was feigning some semblance of normality. Well, what's normal for him, anyway. But Donna could tell it was a strain on him to do so.

"Either way, he can't stay in our universe." the original Doctor said, only maintaining her composure with considerable effort, "He's too dangerous to be left on his own."

"You made me!" the new Doctor snapped.

"Exactly." the original Doctor said, in that cold tone that managed to be a lot scarier than the new Doctor's fire and anger, "You were born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge." she glanced at Rose, "Remind you of someone?" Rose didn't answer, just scowled at the ground.

"Several someones." the Master said, quietly. Donna heard him, but she doubted anyone else on the beach did.

"That's me, when we first met." the Doctor said softly, "And you made me better. Now you can do the same for him."

"But he's not you." Rose complained.

"He is, though." the Master said, clearly, so they could all hear him, "Same soul, same mind. Only one difference. One you'll like." Rose and Jackie turned to stare at him, now, as if they couldn't guess what he was talking about. Or maybe Rose guessed wrong, by the slightly stunned look on her face more than simple confusion, blame Jack for that. Donna smiled faintly at this. It was so obvious to her, but then again she was part Time Lord now, she understood a lot more than the rest of the humans. The Master smiled at the confusion his words had caused, "Humanity."

"What?" Rose asked, still confused. And possibly still thinking things Donna did not want to consider.

"I've only got one heart. I'm part human." the new Doctor said, cautiously taking Rose's hand, "Specifically, the aging part. I'll grow old and never regenerate. I've only got one life... Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you. If you want."

"You'll grow- grow old... at the same time as me?" Rose asked, surprised. Clearly she had never considered this possibility.

"Together." the new Doctor said, nodding.

Rose stared at the new Doctor in amazement at this revelation, reaching a hand up to his chest to feel his single heartbeat. There was happiness there, but still too much shock and confusion for her to really show it.

Then the TARDIS gave them a warning, a grinding noise to alert them to the shift in the realities. They didn't have much time left now.

The Master stepped back into the TARDIS, leading Jenny away and talking to her quietly. Donna didn't catch the words. "We've got to go." the Doctor told the others, "This reality is sealing itself off... for ever."

Donna turned to follow the Master and Jenny, but as the Doctor reached the TARDIS Rose called after them. "But... it's still not right... cause the Doctor is... still you."

"And I'm him." the Doctor said, a sad smile on her face. This must be tearing her to pieces, Donna realised. Letting the woman you love go off with another man because you think it's the right thing. Even if it is the right thing! Can't make it any easier.

"All right." Rose said, her tone becoming challenging, "Both of you, answer me this. When I last stood on this beach, on the worst day of my life, what was the last thing you said to me? Go on, say it."

The Doctor frowned, glancing at the TARDIS briefly, as if wishing she could flee from this inquisition before she lost her resolve and stayed with Rose. But then her gaze turned back to Rose, steady and calm, "I said, 'Rose Tyler'." she opened her mouth again to continue, but froze for an instant, then shook her head.

"Yeah, and how was that sentence gonna end?" Rose insisted.

"You know how it ends." the Doctor said, closing her eyes and turning her head away from Rose. The pain on her face was so clear, every instinct in Donna said hug her... then go get the chocolate ice-cream. And then medical attention for the paper-cuts that result from the hug.

"And you-" Rose hesitated as she looked to the new Doctor, "-Doctor? What was the end of that sentence?"

The new Doctor leaned over to whisper in Rose's ear. Didn't take a lip-reader or a psychic to know what he said, either. Even without all her new Time Lord senses and many of the Doctor's memories, Donna could easily know. And as soon as he said it, Rose kissed him. One of those deep heartfelt kisses you see in the movies, right at the end.

Donna reached out and put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, trying to provide some comfort, and after a couple more seconds the Doctor turned and followed her into the TARDIS.

Don't look back. Never look back. She understood that, now, as well.

x x x


	31. Different Paths

x x x

**Chapter 31: Different Paths**

x x x

When the Doctor returned to the TARDIS, she leaned against the nearest support, fighting back the instinct to cry. It hurt, it really did. She still loved Rose, and probably always would.

Rose seemed to have accepted the other Doctor more easily that she'd expected, and she wondered if that was because he was human or because he really was the same as the Doctor. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she couldn't help thinking that the Master and Jack's argument about whether or not Time Lords had sex might have factored into it, too. She hoped not, because for Rose the Doctor would do anything, even (especially? Never was a fan of Time Lord customs, anyway) if it did go against her species' nature. Always had been curious about the idea, anyway.

She didn't notice the other three people in the TARDIS, until Donna started speaking. "I thought we could try the planet Felspoon." she said, obviously trying to lighten the mood and dispel the negative emotion in the air, "Just cause. What a good name! Felspoon! Apparently, it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move, can you imagine?"

The Doctor slowly looked up at her, glancing briefly at the other two in the room- Jenny seemed genuinely excited about the suggested destination, but the Master showed little sign that he had heard a word of it- before asking Donna, "And how d'you know that?"

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine!" Donna answered eagerly.

The Doctor frowned slightly, knowing where this would lead, and it was nowhere good, "And how does that feel?"

"Brilliant!" Donna cheered, "Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain! You know you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just tried hot-binding the fragment-links and superseding the binary, binary, binary-" like a broken record, even her movement jerked backwards to repeat itself as she stuck on that word, "-binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary, binary-" finally she caught herself, taking a deep and gasping breath, "I'm fine!" that last was declared so defensively. Donna didn't want to admit what was happening to her.

In truth, the Doctor didn't like to accept it, either, but denial was not going to help. She watched Donna sadly, a tear running down the side of her face at the knowledge that she would have to lose Donna as well.

Donna saw it in her eyes, and turned away, changing the subject, "Nah, never mind Felspoon. Know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin! I bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin. Shall we do that? Shall we go and see Charlie Chaplin? Shall we? Charlie Chaplin?" but again something snapped, different symptom, same cause, "Charlie Chester, Charlie Brown, no, he's fiction, friction, fiction, fixing, mixing, Rickston, Brixton..." When she caught herself, this time, she clutched at her head in pain. '_No, no, no, please no!_' the thought screamed through the air, she was terrified, "Oh my God!" she whimpered.

"You know what's happening." the Doctor said, frowning as she approached Donna. Donna nodded weakly, and the Doctor continued, "There's never been a human-Time Lord metacrisis before now. And you know why."

"Because there can't be." Donna hissed, still wanting to deny it. She turned away from the Doctor, the emotional pain radiating from her in waves, "I want to stay."

"Look at me." the Doctor whispered sadly, "Donna. Look at me."

Donna shook her head, even as she turned to face the Doctor, fighting against tears, "I was gonna be with you. Forever."

"I know."

"Rest of my life. Travelling. In the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna."

There was no choice. Donna's mind would burn up with all that information in it. No human brain could handle Time Lord knowledge. Those memories had to go, and anything that could trigger them as well. And Donna seemed to recognise this in the silence.

"No!" she cried, "Oh my god... I can't go back. Don't make me go back. Doctor, please, please don't make me go back!"

"Clones and hypocrites." the Master's voice cut through the air like a knife, clear and sharp. There was something very cold in his eyes as he watched them both. Then he picked up the stripped and reconfigured remains of the Chameleon Arch and threw it to the Doctor, who caught it without thinking. "Always a choice." he added with a dark smile.

"What did you do to it?" the Doctor asked, glancing down at the device in her hands before returning the Master's stare with equal cold and venom. He had dared accuse her of intending to-

But he was right, wasn't he?

"Removed bio-reconfiguration synapses. Reprogrammed data storage capacity to tertiary fail-safes. Set parameters for extraction to temporally perceptive readings only. Locked primary release fields, and set to readable isomorphic coding."

Donna stared at him for several seconds, then smiled, "That, I'll accept." she said simply.

"What's it mean?" Jenny asked, confused.

The Doctor placed the device on Donna's head, gently, "This will hurt." she warned.

"Won't." the Master corrected her, with the disturbing bluntness she was beginning to associate with his new ability to see things even a Time Lord should not be able to perceive.

Donna's eyes closed as the modified Arch activated, but she showed no sign of pain. The Doctor turned to face Jenny, and smiled, "It means it'll remove the memories that could hurt her, but she can still read them from the storage device if she needs to."

"Saves it all." the Master said, smiling, "Including her spirit. That, you could have broken."

The Doctor glared at him, "You could have told me earlier." she snapped.

"Would you have understood?"

She sulked a little, shaking her head only slightly to admit she would not have anticipated this.

x x x

She remembered being able to know things she shouldn't, but none of those things came to mind directly. She had operated complicated machinery without any trouble, or need to read the manual beforehand, and she'd even spoken fluent technobabble! But none of it made sense now.

Donna warily opened her eyes, looking around at the three Time Lords watching her, like she was some sort of science project. The Doctor was worried, the Master only academically curious if at all, and Jenny jumped up and down in glee as Donna's eyes turned to the girl, happy to see that she was still there.

"My head hurts." she admitted.

"Could have been worse." the Doctor pointed out, smiling weakly.

Something else came to mind, now. An absolute certainty that she should not stay here. Not to leave the Doctor, but rather to stay with her family. They needed her. It was not her own thought, she knew that much.

Memories of how the Chameleon Arch was supposed to work flickered briefly through her consciousness, now. The original design implants a false human identity. This feeling she had now- the knowledge that she could not stay here- came from that aspect of the Arch. It had not changed her memories, only added this one piece of seemingly vital information.

Her eyes turned now to the Master, "Why?" she asked him, knowing he was the only one who could have programmed it to tell her this, and to make her believe it so completely. She resisted the instinct to turn and leave right now, in favour of finding out his intent.

"Always a choice." he said simply, "If you saw what I see..." there was a warning in his tone. Something important, but completely defying explanation to her mind.

But as she thought about it, she realised it was probably for the best. Even a _Dalek _ had acted in the Doctor's favour with the knowledge that was now in the Master's mind, and he had already shown a predisposition to aid the Doctor in spite of acting like he hated her. She believed him, thought she wasn't sure why she really should.

"I think..." Donna said, carefully considering this as she spoke, "That I need to go home." she looked up at the Doctor, apologising with her eyes, "I miss my old life." at the pain in the Doctor's eyes she quickly continued, "Not forever. Just... for a little while."

The Doctor nodded slowly, "If that's what you really want. But only two and a half minutes ago you were talking about Felspoon."

"Maybe when I come back." Donna said, smiling, "It does sound like a nice place."

x x x

Wilfred Mott all but jumped out of his skin when he heard the key in the front door. Only three people had keys to this house, and two of them were sitting in it. He hurried to the door to find Donna already stepping in out of the rain, three other people with her. One, he recognised as the Doctor, from the Sontaran thing and from the video conference earlier that day. It was early evening now.

He hugged Donna, relieved to see her safe and sound after the battle that day, "You beat up those Daleks, then?" he asked her.

"Well, we all did, really." she gestured to the other three.

The man- that video conference had identified him as being called the Master- spoke, something in his voice a bit empty, like he wasn't all there, right now, "I only got the opportunity to kill one. It wasn't fair."

"I shot loads of them!" the blond girl put in eagerly.

The Doctor laughed, "Ignore these two bloodthirsty children." she suggested.

"I'm not a child!" the girl retorted.

"I'm not that much younger than you, Doctor." the Master added.

"You act like children." she said, before turning to face Wilf, "I'm sorry for putting your granddaughter in danger." she continued, "I know how you must have felt."

"Oh yeah?" Sylvia demanded, appearing in the kitchen doorway, "You have children of your own, Doctor?"

The Doctor waved a hand in the young girl's direction, "This is my daughter, Jenny." she said with a smile, "I also have a granddaughter, somewhen on Earth."

"Not mine!" Jenny yelped, clearly surprised by this new information that she must have at least one sibling and a niece.

Wilf laughed nervously, "I always liked the idea of visiting the stars, but time-travel'll never sit right in my head."

"I'll tell you all about it." Donna promised, "Pompeii on volcano day, forty-nine-ninty-nine new year's party, an ice planet in the forty-second century. I'm gonna stay here for a while." she glanced at her mother, "If that's alright with you?"

"Of course." Sylvia nodded stiffly, "But you really need to get a job."

Donna laughed, "I'm sure I can figure something out. Captain Jack looked like he was hiring." she grinned as she said that.

"The man from the webcam?" Sylvia said, horrified, "I don't think so."

"I'd discourage that, as well." the Doctor suggested, smiling, "Dangerous profession, Torchwood."

Donna turned around, a bit teary-eyed, to face the Doctor, "This is goodbye. But not forever, you hear me, space-girl?"

"Please stop calling me that, it's as bad as Jenny calling me mom." the Doctor complained.

"If you don't like it, why do you stay this way?" the Master asked bluntly. The Doctor shot him a glare, but said nothing in response. Wilf idly wondered if this had anything to do with Rose and Sylvia's determination to believe that the Doctor was supposed to be a man. Aliens did strange things, he wouldn't be that surprised.

Donna laughed, "Come here, you." she hugged the Doctor, "Don't think I won't find you again." she added, as the Doctor returned the hug.

Donna then went on to hug Jenny, and finally the Master, "I'll find you first." he told her with a faint smile, when she let him go.

"Don't doubt it." Donna said, still laughing as tears ran down her face, "Don't take too long, mind."

He looked up at Wilf, and nodded, "Christmas is always a good time."

"I'll say!" Wilf laughed, "Don't either of you go letting anything get blown up this year!"

The Master raised one eyebrow in what looked like amusement, seeming to look right through him at something else entirely, "No promises."

x x x

It was still raining when Martha Jones showed up on the front doorstep of her parents' house a few days after the Dalek invasion. Amazing what the enslavement of the human race can do that no marriage counsellor could hope to achieve, her parents were downright happy together, now. Her mother hugged her as soon as she opened the door, "I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine, mum." Martha reassured, smiling at her, "We saved the world again."

"It's becoming a habit." her mother scolded, causing her to smile more, "These came for you." she added, pointing to a very pretty bunch of flowers, now in a vase in the hallway.

Martha looked at them warily. Yellow roses. And a card, set neatly with one corner underneath the vase to keep it from getting lost. She noticed it was still in a sealed envelope, her mother hadn't pried.

She opened the note, and read it.

'_Go to the coffee shop, opposite Royal Hope,_  
><em>Midday, tomorrow.<em>  
><em>Yes, I know when you'll get this.<em>  
><em>Wear one of the roses.<em>  
><em>Consider this my apology,<em>  
><em>The Master.<em>'

Trusting the Master wasn't something she would have ever considered, if she hadn't seen the things he had done on Messaline, or the Dalek Crucible. It didn't redeem him, in her eyes, but it earned him the benefit of the doubt.

The next day, she did as the note suggested, arriving at the coffee shop she had so often frequented during her medical training at Royal Hope Hospital. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was?

The sun was shining, now. The rain had stopped just that morning, so the smell of the storm was still in the air, reminding her of the day she had met the Doctor in that very hospital. She wore the rose, tied in her hair. It actually didn't look too out of place, she thought. Not like she was being set up on a blind date, or anything. Somehow, she got that feeling anyway.

And sure enough, a few minutes after she had ordered a coffee and sat down, a man approached her. He was nice to look at, shortish black hair and dark eyes. "Um, hello." he said, nervously.

She smiled up at him, "Hi."

"Are you Martha Jones?"

"Yes." now her tone turned wary, but her smile didn't waver.

"I got a letter that said to meet a pretty girl wearing a yellow rose in her hair, who answered to that name." he sat opposite her, "First blind date in my life, and I'm not even sure who set it up." How did he knew she would wear the rose in her hair? No, best not to consider that, the thought of the Master being omniscient was downright terrifying.

"Why'd you come then?" she asked, smiling at this man.

"Felt like the right thing to do. Like I could trust whoever sent the letter." he said, shrugging as if the reason didn't really matter.

She rolled her eyes, "Sounds about right." she said, shaking her head. Damn Archangel.

"I'm Thomas Milligan." he said, offering her his hand, which she shook, "I work in the hospital." he nodded his head towards Royal Hope.

"A doctor?" Martha asked, her eyes lighting up with amusement. If this was just a joke, she was going to hunt down and kill the Master. Until he stayed dead.

"Yeah. Paediatrician." he nodded, before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small but very shiny black stone, "I was told to give you this."

Martha held out her hand, and the instant the stone touched her skin, she saw flashes of memories. Things that couldn't possibly have happened.

Meeting this man on a beach at night, hiding from Toclafane together, talking about the resistance against the Master's rule on Earth. Telling him, and others, stories about the Doctor saving the world so many times. Then the Master found her, might have killed her, looked like he was going to, and Thomas defended her. It was too fast, too vague for her to get the details. Just flashes of image and emotion.

She stared at him in shock, "Thank you." she whispered, blinking back tears from her eyes as she took the stone. It did nothing, now. Inanimate, but still quite pretty. The designs on it, engraved in fine silver, looked almost like some combination of circuitry and indecipherable runes. It wasn't the same as the watch, but close enough that it might be the same language.

Thomas looked confused at her strong reaction to the object. "What is it?" he asked her.

"Sentimental value." she said quickly, not even lying. That vision was so real, and cut so deep. But then she smiled at him, "So, Thomas, tell me about yourself."

"Please, call me Tom."

x x x

The first thing the Doctor noticed upon waking up was the brown suit. It took less than half a second for that thought to lead to further analysis of the situation, realising that the reason he was wearing the brown suit was because he was no longer female.

He wasn't sure how he had been rendered unconscious, but he didn't feel any residual pain from whatever had done it. The last thing he remembered was returning to the TARDIS after dropping Donna off with her family. She had been talking to Jenny, and not keeping an eye on the Master. Odds were, the Master had snuck up behind her.

Looking around the room he had woken in, he was surprised to find that this was his own room. No one he had ever allowed to travel with him had even been allowed to know where he slept- many of them theorised that he just didn't sleep at all- let alone how to break through the deadlocked and isomorphic door controls. The Doctor did value his privacy, after all.

He was just about to leave the room to track down the culprit. Whoever it was- and there were only two suspects, he knew the Master was the most likely to have done this- was going to be in trouble. But then he paused, noticing something shiny sitting on the bedside table. What at first glance looked like a tiny river of liquid silver catching the light was, in fact, the restraint band the Master had been forced to wear. Sitting neatly next to it was the matching control pendant. Beside these sat a plain envelope, propped up on its edge, leaning against the light on the table. Nothing else in the room had been touched, these three were the only things out of place.

He picked up the envelope cautiously, examining it to ensure it wasn't going to try to bite him or explode in his face- he would not put that sort of thing past the Master- then carefully opened it.

'_Before you turn the TARDIS inside out to find us,_  
><em>and I would love to see you try <em> that_, by the way,_  
><em>we're not there.<em>  
><em>Don't pitch a fit, Jenny is safe. She's just not with you.<em>

Yeah, I'm not a child, don't need a curfew_._

_I'll baby-sit her for you._

I'll kick him in the face for writing that, dad_._

_Back to the point. Don't come looking for us._  
><em>I'll find you.<em>  
><em>The Master.<em>  
><em>P.S. I also took the Varisian gun,<em>  
><em>You spent far too long as a woman,<em>  
><em>it was driving me crazy. Well, more so.<em>

_Oh, and one more thing; Merry Christmas._'

"Yeah, and just how did you get into my room?" the Doctor muttered, scowling as he set the letter down. He did not want to accept the thought that the Master probably did know what he was doing, and might even have a perfectly good reason for it. Beyond simply wanting to make the Doctor suffer.

How could he accept that? His oldest enemy had just kidnapped his daughter! Sure, Jenny didn't seem to be complaining about it, and could probably beat the Master up quite effectively if she decided he deserved it, but that did not change the fact that it upset him.

He was alone now.

A soft humming in the back of his mind reminded him of the TARDIS, aware of his thoughts and trying to reassure him that she would never leave. He smiled weakly at that, he did love her, but it wasn't the same as actual people. A face to see, someone to talk to with words, to explain things to. He did like being the smartest person in a room, and it did nothing for his ego to know that the room he was in was smarter than him on some level. A fact he could easily overlook when he had other people around to distract him.

He left the room, wandering aimlessly through corridors which now echoed in the silence with every footstep, to reflect his mood. It did not take as long as he would have liked for his wanderings to bring him to the control room, but almost as soon as he stepped into the room he felt a warning in his mind.

Something wasn't right.

He quickly checked the controls, and realised some of the inertial shields were down. He checked other readouts, especially the time and place- would be bad to have shields down on a hostile world or too near a meteor shower- but saw that he was in a relatively safe high orbit of Earth. 10PM on December twenty-fourth, 2008.

As he read that, he genuinely smiled, realising what the Master had meant at the end of the letter. Christmas, maybe he could visit some friends on Earth? Might not be so bad.

But just as the thought crossed his mind, a proximity alarm sounded. Unfortunately, the controls for that were on the far side of the console, and as he ran around to see what was wrong, the TARDIS shook. With shields down, whatever had struck the hull ripped right through into the control room, accompanied by a sound quite strongly reminiscent of a fog-horn.

The Doctor was thrown off his feet, falling somewhere halfway across the room, away from the source of the problem... which looked very much like the bow of a ship. "What?" From this ship, a life-ring had fallen to the TARDIS floor, right in front of the Doctor. He scrambled forward, and picked it up. This identified the ship as the Titanic. "What?"

x x x

_The End_


	32. Out Takes

x x x

**Outtakes**

These are the scenes that I deleted or edited hugely, for various reasons (didn't fit in, not necessary, inappropriate, etc), before posting. Not all of them are even properly detailed as some were removed before they could be fully realised, at least one is almost all dialogue, but they're all here for anyone who feels like reading them.

x x x

**Chapter 3; The Doctor retaliates for Jack's suggestion that she was flirting with Yana...**

"Jack, do you like the idea of a slow and painful death?" she asked coldly, her voice low so the others couldn't hear her.

"Not really." he answered dismissively. He was now working on some part of the rocket's system, and not exactly paying attention to her.

"Then just leave your delusions where I can't hear them."

"Very defensive." Jack said, grinning, without looking up at her. Suddenly, he froze, as he realised she really was mad at him, and turned to look at her, "You won't let me even talk to anyone." he said, suddenly defensive himself, "If you're jealous, just say so. Otherwise I will continue to find other ways to amuse myself, which includes making perfectly honest observations-" he grinned as she glared at that, "-until you stop treating me like I need to be kept on a leash."

"Funny, thought you'd like that idea." she retorted.

x x x

**Chapter 4; Tish talks to Vivien Rook...**

Tisha Jones was a bit disconcerted by her new job. Mostly because she wasn't sure what, exactly, she was supposed to be doing. Oh, she had been told to just stand there and look pretty, but she was sure that was an idle joke. Possibly even genuine flirting, she wasn't entirely sure. After the Lazarus incident, she was a bit more wary of attractive powerful men, but certainly wouldn't say no to Mr Saxon, given the chance.

Now however, a woman approached her, as she lurked uncertainly outside Mr Saxon's office. The door was ajar right now, but Tish was too good a girl to peek. Not when she already knew he was just going over boring paperwork, anyway. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but no one is allowed to see Mr Saxon, right now."

Mr Saxon's voice shouted out from the office, "Not nobody, not nohow!"

She laughed nervously, then turned her attention back to the strange woman, "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Oh, it's just an interview, minor details. It won't take a minute, I'm sure." the woman answered, briskly, as if Tish herself was just a minor annoyance not worth even looking at while speaking to her.

"I'm sorry, you heard Mr Saxon, nobody is allowed in at the moment. He's very busy." Tish said, trying to sound apologetic, but this woman was so outright rude, in her opinion, that she had difficulty feigning the emotion.

The woman opened her mouth to protest, but then, "Oh alright then. Let her in." She glanced behind her to see the door had opened and Mr Saxon was standing there, smiling as always. "Oh, and Tish. No calls, no other visitors. If anyone else gets in here you're fired." and with that he stepped back to let the woman in. The door shut with finality behind her, and Tish was left to wonder what she'd just done to deserve such a threat.

In any other circumstances, she would have put her ear to the door to find out, but she knew well enough that the conference rooms and offices were completely sound-proof, so there was no point. Instead she leaned against the wall next to the door and proceeded to obediently keep everyone else out.

x x x

**Chapter 5; Descriptive bit about the drums, written before I decided she'd go with the whole 'date' idea...**

She rolled her eyes, knowing that this whole 'Toclafane' thing was supposed to happen tomorrow morning. She had to talk him out of it, whatever it was. "Why Earth? We could fight across the entire universe, if you want, but not here!"

"Too late." he said bluntly.

"Why?"

"The drumming." she heard a distant tapping both down the phone-line and echoed in the back of her mind, "Can't you hear it?" the beat began to repeat, getting louder as he spoke, "I thought it would stop, but it never does. It never ever stops, inside my head. The drumming, Doctor. The constant drumming."

"What if I could help make it stop?" she asked quietly. So quietly she barely heard it over the echo in her mind. Although, that wasn't saying much, it was probably perfectly audible to anyone who wasn't affected by whatever was causing her to hear this sound.

"It's everywhere." either he hadn't heard, or he didn't want to. It could be either. "Listen. Listen listen! Here come the drums. Here... come... the drums."

The echo of that beat became almost deafening, to the point where she had to block her mind to think. Then she realised that several of the humans around her were tapping the same rhythm. Part of whatever he had done to brainwash them, it had to be.

Everyone around the Doctor started tapping out that same rhythm, as well.

"What have you done? Tell me how you've done this? What are those creatures? Tell me!"

"Oh look, you're on T.V.!"

"Stop it! Answer me!"

"No, really, you're on the telly!"

x x x

**Chapter 7; Stolen- erm, borrowed- from Firefly (although John Hart used something very similar in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) and a bit OOC for the Doctor, but I wrote it cause it was fun...**

"Shakespeare's autograph, jelly-babies, five different coloured pens- one of which is pink?- notepad, telescope, stethoscope, glasses, 3D glasses, shot glasses, magnifying glass, Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, bananas, a yo-yo, a ball of string, a toy mouse, catnip- why do you have catnip?" she actually opened her mouth to answer that question, it was a perfectly reasonable answer too, but he continued before she could speak, "No, I don't think I want to know. Paperclips, playing cards- marked playing cards, even- oh, is this what I think it is?" he asked, holding up what looked like a double-ended lipstick and examining it carefully, "Seriously?"

"What is it?" Jack asked, confused. He didn't have a good view from where he sat on the floor, and the Master wasn't even facing him so Jack probably couldn't see what he was talking about.

"Silence or death, freak." the Master said distantly, not even bothering to look at Jack, still staring at the object he had found.

The Doctor decided to answer Jack's question, though, "It's Goodnight Kiss." A drug invented in late twenty-fourth century Earth, and almost immediately outlawed, first by Earth government and then the Shadow Proclamation. When worn it looks like normal lip-balm, doesn't even colour, but the impermeable base-coat allows the user to safely apply the powerful contact-sedative to their lips. Anyone they kiss gets knocked out for up to five hours. It was effective on most sentient beings, and based on the chemical composition of the drug she guessed it should keep a Time Lord unconscious for about half an hour. Well, maybe only fifteen minutes.

"Which is illegal in twenty-seven galaxies." the Master pointed out, stunned that the Doctor might use such underhanded tactics.

"Last resort, that's all." she said dismissively.

It had found its way into her pocket by accident when she had changed from the brown coat and blue suit- or possibly already been there, she had forgotten whether or not one of her previous companions had worn this jacket before- and she only found it after finishing her phone call with the Master.

She hadn't really expected him to give her the opportunity to use it- he would have become instantly suspicious if she'd made the first move, or even if she had failed to show a negative reaction to the idea when he brought it up- but she knew his opinion of females in general and had thought it couldn't hurt to be prepared just in case.

"Nearly worked." the Master muttered, stunned. Jack bit back the urge to laugh, only just managing to remain silent. He clearly knew exactly what Goodnight Kiss was- rumour had it Time Agents used it on occasion, anyway- and thought this was hilarious.

The Master threw that weapon on top of the growing pile of random junk, and resumed his search, "Where was I... a water pistol, a rubber duck? No, three rubber ducks. Ah ha!" he finally found the sonic screwdriver, and held it up in triumph, "Knew it had to be somewhere."

x x x

**Chapter 8; Removed after reconsidering whether or not the Master would willingly ask for help...**

The next day, the Doctor was summoned once more. This time, to a different room, a smaller conference room, with a very comfortable looking couch and a huge flat-screen T.V., both of which she was sure could not have been there before the Master took over the world.

"You said you wanted to try to stop the drums." the Master said. He was sitting on the couch itself, and when he spoke, he beckoned her to him, over his shoulder, not even looking at her as he did so.

She cautiously approached, walking around the couch to stand in front of him. He still refused to look at her, as if he didn't want to acknowledge that he was actually asking for her help. Well, he never admitted to needing help, so she wasn't that surprised by his reluctance to do so now, really.

Very tentatively, she sat down next to him, and reached out a hand to touch the side of his face. But he caught her wrist before she could, and finally met her eyes. She couldn't see through the mask he wore to hide his emotions, but from his behaviour she could guess that he might actually be afraid of this.

He pushed her hand away, and then touched her face instead. He wanted control. This, she understood. She closed her eyes, and what little telepathic defence she had left while she wore the disruptor collar she used now to shield herself against the pain she knew would hit her if she heard the drums again.

It didn't take her long to find them, either. Almost as soon as their minds touched, the sound echoed around her once more. It took a lot of effort to tune out the pain, and try to search for the source of the sound. There was no source, though, she figured this out quickly, and so she tried another tactic. Instead of defending herself from the sound, she tried to wrap her mental shields around his mind instead.

"Does that help?" she asked, frowning in concentration and pain.

"Yes." he answered, "But only a little."

Very sharply, she pulled away from his mind, and then from his touch, "Whatever it is, it's an outside influence." she said bluntly, "Otherwise that wouldn't have helped at all." she stared at him for several seconds, before adding in a relatively hopeless tone, "I could do more if I weren't wearing this." she indicated the collar, as she said this.

He shook his head, smiling faintly, "Not going to happen."

"I'm sorry, Master." she said, looking away, "I tried."

x x x

**Chapter 9; On the subject of television...**

"I don't get it." the Master said, frowning at the T.V. They were watching some random mindless series on DVD, and a character that had been gone for a season had apparently returned looking completely different, "That _is _ a human, right?" Well, to be honest, the Master was watching it, the Doctor wasn't trying to ignore it in favour of fighting the collar again.

She was also trying to ignore him, in general. Both tasks were made especially difficult by the fact that he had insisted she lay down with her head rested on his knee as she faced the T.V.- it wasn't that she was uncomfortable, just that she didn't like the fact that his hand on her shoulder was resting so close to her neck. But his question demanded a logical response, or he would find some demented way to perceive the concept in completely the wrong light.

"T.V. shows do this, Master." she said, flatly, "No rational explanation, they just pretend that was always the actor they had used. Usually because the previous actor is unavailable to play the part." She'd already gone through the whole 'why Tellytubbies aren't real' debate a week ago- it had been like breaking the Santa Claus myth to an emotionally unstable child- and she really didn't feel like explaining this as well.

"And Spike, explain how he ended up on that spin-off?" the Master persisted, referring to Buffy the Vampire slayer, and the fact that the vampire in question had been turned into a pile of dust at the end of the show.

"Just because a character on a T.V. show dies, doesn't mean you're never going to see them again. Same actor could come back as a flashback or a ghost or an evil twin. Soap operas love evil twins, science fiction loves cloning, and fantasy seems to like resurrections. Spike got resurrected."

The Master shook his head, not even noticing that she had failed to say his name, "You know, I think I liked that character... before he 'got a soul'."

"I think Jack would like him, too." the Doctor joked, earning a glare that she felt rather than saw, "Master." she added, smiling innocently, as if that was the only possible reason for him to glare.

x x x

**Same chapter, same subject, different conversation...**

"Excellent."

When she heard him say this, especially the tone he had used to say it, Martha found herself unable to resist the urge to suggest, "If I may, Master, you might want to look for the Simpsons DVDs, as well." she said in far too innocent a tone.

"Especially season eight's Hallowe'en special." the Doctor added. Martha frowned in confusion, and the Doctor elaborated a little bit, "It involved Kang and Kodos rigging an election. And they wrote that over a decade ago."

The Master snorted, managing to look both indignant and amused at the same time, "Who are Kang and Kodos?"

Martha shook her head, "And I thought he watched too much T.V."

x x x

**Chapter 10; First draft of the conversation about Jack stalking the Doctor's past lives...**

"So, Jack. You as good as admitted to stalking my past lives?"

"Well, first I heard of you during that century was in nineteen sixty-three. I did investigate something in nineteen thirteen, but it proved to be a false lead."

"Actually, nineteen thirteen probably was me. Chameleon Arch."

"Okaaaay..."

"Sixty-three would have been my seventh life, I'm guessing."

"And I thought this was confusing _before _ I started telling you what I knew."

"Keep going."

"The name Fenric was mentioned in Torchwood files, for that one."

"Definitely my seventh life. Fenric was a right pain to deal with."

"After that, UNIT records showed two of your incarnations in the seventies and eighties, although the second was only mentioned briefly and not in a complimentary way."

"The one with the scarf?"

"Mmhm."

"My fourth life. Not my finest."

"But there are extensive files on the one before that."

"You may be surprised to hear this, but those two were actually in correct chronological order."

"So that was your third?"

"Yep. And the Master would have been mentioned then, as well, I assume."

"Yeah, that was when both organisations first recognised him."

A nod.

"Torchwood recorded something in the mid-nineties about possessions they thought you were to blame for?"

"That was the Master again."

"Ah."

"Wouldn't be the first time Torchwood blamed me for something I put a stop to."

"Yeah, I did read the founding story. You and Rose met a real werewolf? Is that true?"

"Yep. So that was it?"

Jack nodded slowly, though the Doctor got the impression that he was holding something back. She doubted it was something from the (relative) past. Wouldn't surprise her if he'd actually met one of her future selves as well, she had two good regenerations left, after all, and she knew he wasn't stupid enough to tell her what her own (relative) future held.

"So you failed to track down my worst personality... and my best!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Six was... unstable. To be polite about him. Five was my favourite, though."

"One strange thing did happen, the first week of two-thousand. A girl fell through the Cardiff rift from the twenty-second century, said she knew you, but wouldn't talk. Old Torchwood would have locked her up, but I let her go. She actually used the Rift to leave. No idea where she is now."

"Did she give a name?"

"No." (but for your reference, readers, it was meant to be Susan)

x x x

**Chapter 10; Idle conversation when Jack had just been turned into a woman...**

"And just who is Jackie Tyler?" he asked, handing the weapon to the Doctor.

"You did _not _ compare my name to hers, did you?" Jack demanded indignantly.

"I might have." the Doctor said, innocently.

"Who is she?" the Master insisted.

"Rose's mother. Vicious woman when she doesn't like you." the Doctor said blithely.

"And I bet she loved you, taking her daughter off on dangerous adventures and all." Martha said, grinning.

"Because we all know how much your mother loved the Doctor." the Master muttered.

Martha glared at him, but said nothing.

"Jackie slaps harder than you, though, Master." the Doctor added innocently.

x x x

**Chapter 14; A conversation with Quintus...**

He wandered over to the edge of a steeper drop, and sat down there, just staring at it. This was the first time in a very long time that he had failed to find any joy in watching the suffering of others. In fact, he only recalled being so disgusted by such things once before, and that was so long ago now it was a vague memory at best.

Quintus sat next to him. He could distantly hear the Doctor talking to the rest of the family, but didn't listen to her words. He also didn't react to Quintus' presence immediately. Not until the boy spoke, "Do you think anyone else got out?"

"Not unless they were smart enough to leave town before it happened." the Master said bluntly. Funnily enough, when he glanced at the boy he saw a faint smile flicker on his face for an instant, "What?"

"Just someone I met a few days ago at the thermopolium." he said distantly. The tone was one of admiration, as if whoever he'd met was particularly interesting. "Gave me some pointers on picking up girls."

"If his name was Jack Harkness..."

"Yes, actually." Quintus said, surprised. The Master laughed, genuinely amused by this, which earned him glares from everyone else present, "How do you know him?"

"You do not want to know."

"Right." the boy smiled, clearly having come to the wrong conclusion there, which meant he'd at least spoken to Jack for more than five minutes.

The Master shook his head, and suddenly all illusion of cheerfulness left him. It had been funny, but not enough to detract from how he felt about the consequences to his personal wellbeing of what he had done here.

He did notice when Quintus left to join the rest of his family, though he didn't react to it. Caecilius was inventing the word volcano, as the Doctor moved to stand behind the Master, "We should leave." she said softly.

x x x

**Chapter 16; Because I wasn't sure if this was the right word to use...**

"I see. So you do have weapons, but choose to keep them hidden." the Colonel continued, as if the two hadn't been bickering in-between the relatively civilised conversation. It appeared to be perfectly normal, from the way they reacted to it. Almost a game. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I'm not letting this dangerous felon out of my sight, as long as he's on Earth."

"Felon? Did he just call me a felon?" the Master asked indignantly, "I'm insulted! Do you know the definition of a felony, Colonel? If I punched you in the face, right now- assaulting a UNIT officer- that would count... and I assure you, I have done far worse than that."

"Master?" the Doctor asked, staring at him with an innocent smile. He turned to look at her and she added, "Shut up."

x x x

**Chapter 16; Random conversation during the ride in the jeep... because I was listening to this song when I was writing it...**

"What's he doing?" Donna asked, pointing to the Master, who was quite happily ignoring the others, with one hand up to his ear, and his eyes closed.

The Doctor leaned over, and pulled a wire out from between his hand and sleeve, "Earphones... probably an mp3 player."

The Master opened his eyes, now, looking at her with a faint smile, "New downloads from my Archangel account." he shrugged, "I like this one."

"What is it?" Donna asked, sounding genuinely interested.

"Linkin Park, New Divide." the Master answered.

"Never heard of it." the Doctor muttered, almost sulking at that fact. She didn't trust him enough to let him play with toys she hadn't pre-approved.

"I have." Donna said with a shrug, as she returned her attention to the road, in time to tell the Colonel to turn here to get to her street, "It is good. Bit dark, but good."

x x x

**Chapter 18: Original version of the scene after Rattigan's death, before I decided to hint at more Doctor/Master instead...**

An instant after she'd realised this, she felt the explosion overhead. Not heard, it _was _ in outer space, after all. But the deaths of such a large number, clones, enemies, invaders, they may have been, but it still hurt to sense their demise. And Luke Rattigan, lost amidst the screams of the Sontarans, or maybe his mind hadn't cried out at the end?

"Two for two." the Master said, frowning. "At least this time it was an honourable death."

The Doctor looked up at him, glaring. She felt lost, and cold. She had been willing to sacrifice herself, so that _no one else would die here_! And what had the dumb ape gone and done? About the most intelligent thing in his life, is what. And it hurt her to know that it was probably the right thing, too.

Slowly, she moved to sit on the edge of the now dead teleport pad. Without the Sontaran ship to power it, this was now a relatively useless piece of extra-terrestrial junk. Martha hurried over to hug her, and try to comfort her. Donna, on the other hand, when she approached, hit the Doctor rather sharply on the arm, before sitting down next to her as well.

The Master kept his distance, arms folded defensively across his chest, showing his distaste for the emotional display, but she could sense the relief from him. He didn't want her dead, never had, the Doctor had known this for a long time. After several long seconds, however, he was the first of them to speak, "Why Donna?"

"Would you have preferred Martha?" the Doctor asked, holding out her hand to Donna without even looking at her, asking for the pendant to be returned to her. Donna complied with this without complaint. She got the feeling Donna hadn't wanted that responsibility, anyway.

"No, but that was precisely why I expected you to give it to her." the Master said, shrugging and seeming to relax a little, now that the Doctor wasn't looking so upset. She still felt it, but was allowing the others to think she was ok for now.

"I don't trust you, doesn't mean I hate you." she answered, shrugging.

Martha gave her a mock glare, "I wouldn't have been that cruel to him. Jack might, given the chance, though."

When he heard this remark, the Master literally snarled, "I do not need to think about what _he _ might do with that thing, thank you very much."

x x x

**Chapter 19; Because you didn't need to hear conclusive proof of the possibility this early...**

"How long have you two been travelling, since the Valiant?" Martha asked, as they walked across the barren world. The Hath wasn't far behind them, just enough to not hear what she intended to be a private conversation.

The Master glanced at her, "What does that matter?"

She frowned slightly, as she asked, "Between something you didn't say at Rattigan Academy- smooth recovery, by the way- and her reaction to that machine-"

"Progenation machine." the Master corrected automatically, guessing where this was going and hoping for an opportunity to distract her from the thought.

"It makes me wonder..."

"Three months." he said bluntly.

Martha frowned, "You already know what I'm trying to ask, don't you?" he didn't answer that. "Am I right?"

"It's possible."

"When?" Martha asked, scowling. The Doctor had denied any such insinuations made by either herself or Jack, after they had escaped the Valiant.

"Why do you care?"

"It can't have been on the Valiant." Martha said simply.

"Why not?"

"There would be other signs."

"You're talking about a member of the same species that designed the TARDIS."

Martha stopped in her tracks for a moment, and stared at thin air, "Oh."

(Martha was trying to ask if the Doctor was pregnant, in case it wasn't obvious... I mean, it wasn't supposed to be too obvious, but still...)

x x x

**Chapter 25; Even more phones to call the Doctor...**

Something Jack said did, for some reason, break through the onslaught of technobabble, "Mr Smith, can you access Archangel, as well?" Rose saw a scowl cross Martha's face as he said it, too.

"Negative, six-digit numerical authorisation code required." Mr Smith answered.

"Try eight-two-seven-three-four-seven." Jack said, still working on something to do with the Rift as he spoke.

"Negative."

"Six-two-seven-eight-three-seven?" Jack suggested, still not bothering to look at the screen.

"Global mobile phone networks accessed."

"Ha! Too easy!" Jack laughed.

Martha, who had been looking at her own phone, also laughed, "No kidding."

Rose looked at her own mobile phone, and read those numbers. The first spelled out TARDIS, the second she wasn't sure of.

x x x

**Chapter 29; Before I saw Torchwood series 3...**

"You'd shatter." he said simply, staring into her eyes but giving nothing away, "I was already broken. The drums. They're silent now. This is worse. Shadows and screaming. Rebirth of death itself." He looked away from her again, but when his eyes landed on Jack, he laughed, "Oh, that's priceless!"

"What?" Jack demanded, indignantly.

"Your future."

"Which I suppose you can't tell me?" Jack growled, defensively.

"I've been there, already. Not just seen. I see _why_, now."

Jack raised an eyebrow at that, "Do I even _want _ to know?"

"Yes." the Master said with a bright smile, and that was all he said on that subject. The Doctor idly wondered when the Master had met Jack in the Captain's relative future, but chose not to think about. Thinking about it would make her head hurt, she was already getting annoyed enough by the rest of the conversation so far.

"This is seriously disturbing." Donna pointed out, "I mean, if he's seen whatever it was that drove Caan mad, doesn't that mean it'll destroy his mind?"

x x x

**Could really have gone into either chapter 10 or 29... written while on a serious caffeine high and right after watching Back to the Future...**

"Why is there a DeLorean in your laboratory, Doctor?" Jack asked, wandering over in the direction of the aforementioned vehicle.

"Sentimental value." she answered dismissively, not paying much attention to what Jack was doing.

The Captain opened the door of the vehicle in question and looked inside, "Aww, it's just a regular one..."

"What do you expect, the original was run over by a train." the Doctor pointed out, as if it should be obvious.

Jack turned to look at her, slightly stunned by the suggestion that the movie they were discussing might have really happened, "You're kidding?"

"Nineteen-thirteen was not the first time I used a Chameleon Arch." she answered, flashing a bright grin in Jack's direction, "I got in a lot of trouble for my human self inventing two fully functional time machines within a century of each other."

"Wow... I had no idea those movies were real." Jack muttered.

"You think that's bad?" she asked, "One time, I took George Lucas on a trip to a library on Coruscant..."

Jack grinned, "It could have been worse-"

"Than Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman's on-screen chemistry?" she interrupted sceptically, causing Jack to laugh before continuing.

"There was a TV puppet show in the sixties based entirely on my inability to die."

"I've still got you beat. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. The writers never did pay my royalties for that one. But I take absolutely no responsibility for whatever intoxicants they were inhaling when they wrote the sequel... except for that one guy who kind of looked like a Sontaran."

x x x

**Alternative context for the PMS conversation...**

"So did you ever use it before Yana?" the Doctor asked, referring to the Chameleon Arch.

"No." the Master answered bluntly, "The very idea of humanity disgusts me. It was a last resort, to avoid detection." then he smirked, "Have you ever used it?"

"Once. This regeneration, before what you so tactfully refer to as the 'accident'. Nineteen-thirteen. I was hiding from the Family of Blood."

"What did those parasites want?"

"My life. What else?"

"Good point."

"Wouldn't catch me using it right now, unless the fate of the universe depended on it, though."

"Why not?"

"The idea of being human isn't a problem for me, but certain negative side-effects of being a human female..."

Donna walked in at this point, "Oi! I heard that! Wait a minute, are you telling me Time Lords don't get PMS?"

"No, but they still have their bitchy moments." the Master noted too happily.

"Shut up, you." the Doctor snapped.

"See what I mean?"

x x x

**Jenny's thoughts on the half-human version of the Doctor...**

It was really weird to think about, in Jenny's opinion. First of all, there was her mother- well, technically both mother and father, both biologically speaking and in the literal sense of the fact that the Doctor had for some reason been a man before and become a woman, relatively recently by all accounts. Then there was the other one. Was he a sort-of-clone? Her brother? Who just happened to look exactly like her 'father'. And then Donna, who had shared some sort of weird regeneration-related thing with the Doctor, which had caused the other one to be created, making her what? An aunt? Step-mother? Yeah, best not to think about it. At all.

x x x

**A couple of random lines that I couldn't find anywhere to fit them in...**

Poor human, immediately got leapt upon and hugged by the Doctor. Wow, was he actually feeling pity for one of these stupid apes? No, he was insulting the Doctor, that was it. That was always it.

Jenny never really thought herself that separate from humans. They built the machine that helped make her, she considered the species related to her in that way.

x x x


	33. Random Note

x x x

**Random Note**

Time Lord senses, a brief and dumbed-down explanation for all you under-evolved apes out there.

x x x

**Self-awareness**; (with the right training a Time Lord can read and control almost every aspect of their own body)

**Enhanced senses**; the basic five, but better- the collar pulled these back, so all she could perceive were the basics humans usually get.  
><strong>Sight<strong>; greater range than humans, perceiving infra-red enough to detect body-heat when there's nothing else in the way, and ultra-violet just enough to see those things you humans never wanted to see, like on the sort of TV show where they take a black-light into a hotel room... can also see much sharper detail at a distance than humans can, too... the Doctor's glasses, if you haven't already guessed, are purely aesthetic.  
><strong>Hearing<strong>; greater distance, can usually pick up every word of a whispered conversation at the far end of the room, and can also hear those whistle-things that you humans think only dogs can hear.  
><strong>Smell and taste<strong>; these two really go together... using these senses- though taste is less advisable when dealing with the unfamiliar- a Time Lord can analyse the chemical composition of almost any substance... this explains the Doctor's fixation on licking things a bit better, too.  
><strong>Touch<strong>; this is the only point where Time Lord and human senses are perfectly equal.

**Telepathy**;  
><strong>Direct reading<strong>; requires physical contact, can be done in spite of the collar, is considered a violation to do without the subject's permission.  
><strong>Remote communication<strong>; thoughts- eg. words, sounds or images- deliberately projected for any nearby telepath to hear... neither the Doctor nor the Master are especially proficient at reading these, but good enough to get the gist of it if not the actual words.  
><strong>Surface thoughts<strong>; everyone has thoughts on the front of their mind... considered rude, but not outright offensive, to deliberately read these... sometimes they're impossible to ignore.

**Empathy**;  
><strong>Direct emotional bond<strong>; like how the Doctor is connected to the TARDIS... unlike direct telepathy this doesn't need physical contact, but touch does strengthen the link... it is possible for lesser species- including humans after the forty-second century- to be trained in this ability and share such a bond with each other, or even with a Time Lord.  
><strong>Remote emotional communication<strong>; think Ood-song.  
><strong>Emotional awareness<strong>; knowing what others around them are feeling.

**Vortex awareness**; after seeing the Untempered Schism, Time Lords become aware of the Vortex itself... they will know if something has travelled through the Vortex nearby, and usually what sort of travel is used, too, eg. Vortex manipulator or TARDIS... also able to sense the presence of others within the Vortex when they are travelling through it... and if they're good enough- which the Doctor is not- they can predict and avoid the more hazardous eddies and waves within the Vortex and _not _ end up getting thrown off course into an alternate reality that they shouldn't have been able to go to in the first place.

**Temporal perception**;  
><strong>Paradox recognition<strong>; if they find themselves in or near a paradox, a Time Lord will instantly recognise the fact... this is how the Doctor perceives Jack as "wrong", because his continued existence is a paradox on a genuinely terrifying scale.  
><strong>Flux perception<strong>; recognising where time can be altered and where it cannot, fixed time will remain set regardless of persistent attempts to change it... eg. if the Doctor had not interfered with Pompeii, someone else would have done so, 'cause let's face it if Donna hadn't saved the Doctor from himself when he was fighting the Racnoss, in her own little alternate reality, then how else would the Pyrovile have been thwarted?  
><strong>Past-sense<strong>; the ability to mentally rewind anything they concentrate on, to see what it used to be... among other useful applications, this is how Time Lords can identify each other through regenerations, even if they don't share direct emotional bonds.  
><strong>Future-sense<strong>; the ability to see what might be... generally considered to be more of an academic evaluation, based on probabilities, than an actual sense, but it's been proven that Time Lords can read these potential futures accurately even without all the evidence that should lead to them... in the Doctor's case, this usually results in seeing every possible future _except _ the one that ends up actually happening.  
><strong>Time-sense<strong>; simply telling the time- minutes, hours, days, years, millennia- without needing to check external sources... the Doctor's time-sense is much more accurate on the smaller end of the scale, but can be wildly wrong about the millennium, century, or occasionally even year, as Rose Tyler discovered on more than one occasion (not that the TARDIS' navigation circuits helped much, either, in those situations).

**Spatial awareness**;  
><strong>Second sight<strong>; able to perceive the physical space around them, recognise obstructions and threats even in pitch darkness, or if otherwise blinded... the Doctor's second sight is quite myopic, though.  
><strong>Stellar alignment perception<strong>; more like a physical feeling, eg. literally feel the gravitational pull of the moon, when standing on the Earth.

_Time-sense_ and _stellar alignment perception_, put together, should- in theory- allow a Time Lord to know exactly when and where he or she is... assuming they know their history and astronomy well enough. The Doctor failed Astronomy six times, and only passed in the end by cheating, with the help of the Master.

x x x

**Author's Note**: I apologise for any derogatory remarks about humans or the Doctor during this, but I was channelling the Master when I wrote it.


	34. Welcome Home

**Author's Note**: Please check out my profile page, for the Torchwood sequel. It's technically an AU even to this fic, diverging off from chapter 10.

x x x

**Epilogue: Welcome Home**

x x x

"Where are we?" Jenny asked, staring around her in awe.

They were walking on a cracked and glassy beach, the edge of which overlooked a great abyss where the planet they were on had cracked down the edge of a tectonic plate. The sky was filled with a vast field of debris and broken planets, interspersed with shimmering silvery-blue gasses and weak white dwarf stars that barely sustained the remnants of life on these shattered worlds.

"It's called the Silver Devastation. Almost two hundred trillion years ago, two galaxies collided, causing this." the Master waved overhead, indicating the aptly named spatial anomaly they stood within, "And here, on this unnamed and uninhabited ruin on the coast- about five years ago, now- is where my human self, whom you so sweetly described as a 'cuddly grandpa'-" oh, how he sneered at those two words, "-was first found."

Jenny grinned at the thought, and turned on the spot to stare around her, "It's beautiful." she observed. The cliff rising up from the beach was made of jet black rock, shiny and crystallised from the vicious storm that had rent this planet in two, looming over the two Time Lords as they walked, drawing her eyes up towards this planet's shattered sister-world, shimmering violet and indigo, the closest world overhead and the brightest.

"I like your taste." he said calmly, smiling slightly.

The air smelled of fire and lightening, and was so thin that the only sky to be seen was the jet-black of space, and the ethereal glow of the Devastation itself. It was truly spectacular to look at, although more than just a bit chaotic. Aside from the dying stars that held this anomaly together, there was nothing else to be seen... except for one speck of light in the far distance, beyond it all.

"What's that star, out there?" she asked, indicating just about the only star out there at all. It flickered and wavered slightly, as the silver gasses shimmered across it like a cloud in the night.

"That?" the Master laughed, dark and sardonic, "That is Utopia."

Jenny frowned. She knew the story behind that, and found it quite a buzz-kill, in this wondrous new world she was exploring. They continued to walk for a few minutes. The only sound was the crunch of the once-sandy beach, as it crackled under Jenny's boots. Somehow, the Master's steps were light, and left no mark on the fragile glass.

She soon saw that they were approaching, ruins of actual structures. A tall tower of dusty white stone, partially fallen down. Walls of the same material, barely waist-high, but she imagined that they might once have risen high above her. The Master led the way carefully through what looked like it might have been a gateway- evidence of pillars on either side, and some rubble across the stone path that led through it. All that same dusty white.

He led her along the path, to an open space covered in the white stones, with a pile of indistinguishable rubble in the centre. A town square? Jenny tried to read back in time, to see it as it had once been, but her head started to hurt after only a few thousand years, and nothing had changed in that time.

Turning to face her, he gestured to the foot of the former-statue, "This is where they found me." he said, "Just there. Which means..." he turned on the spot, slowly, eyes scanning the area very carefully, "Somewhere around here... ah ha!" he suddenly burst into a run, charging off through the ruined streets.

Jenny grinned, '_Finally!_' she thought, barely suppressing a laugh as she turned and ran after him.

She weaved through rubble and fallen stone, following him closely. They hadn't gone very far, when she ducked under a particularly large piece of fallen masonry, and emerged in another dusty-white courtyard, this time with what must have once been a fountain as its focal point. It actually looked like some of the jets of water had been frozen and crystallised in the cataclysm that had taken this world.

She stopped short when she saw the Master standing in front of what must be about the only completely intact pillar in the ruined city. It looked like it was made of the same sort of stone as all the rest of it, but Jenny could feel the psychic energy radiating from it, and the Master was looking up at it with a sort of reverence that stilled her and made her wait to see just what would happen next.

Slowly, deliberately, the Master took the one step that closed the distance between himself and the pillar, reaching out a hand to touch it. When he did, a door opened in its side, and now Jenny recognised what it must be. "A TARDIS?" she asked, picking her way across the rubble on the ground, towards the two of them.

"My TARDIS." the Master corrected, turning to smile at her, and with a wave of his arm- a chivalrous gesture- he indicated the open door. Jenny could just see the room within, all sleek lines in black and silver. "Ladies first."

Jenny laughed, and quickly trotted past him, into the TARDIS. It felt cooler in here than in the Doctor's TARDIS... almost chilly, even to her. The door closed behind her, and the Master stepped past her. She looked around the room, sensing sadness in the air, where the Doctor's TARDIS emanated joy. She queried it, and heard morbid laughter in her mind... then another emotion, relief from solitude. Welcome.

"It's good to be home..." she heard him whisper, as he approached the control column. His expression was sombre and calm, a direct contrast to the way the Doctor would behave in the same situation, "Now where would you like to go?"

x x x


End file.
